Induction Speech Video
James Carney is hailed by former and current Millersville coaches as one of the greatest distance runners the university’s ever produced, and that is high praise considering the strong tradition. Competing for the Marauders for three years, Carney smashed records and piled up awards.
Carney opened his record-setting senior season of 1999-2000 with a memorable cross country campaign that included a school record in the 10K of 30:47 which still stands and no runner since has come within one minute of that mark. After earning NCAA All-East Region honors in 1997, Carney performed the feat again as a senior, finished as the runner-up at the PSAC Championships and achieved All-America status with a 13th-place finish at the NCAA Championships—the second highest finish of any runner in school history.
The records kept falling during track season as he set indoor marks in the mile (4:13.92), 3,000-meter run (8:23.91) and the 5,000-meter run (14:00.73). During the outdoor season, he set a school record in the 10,000-meter run (29:15.54) before winning the 5K and 10K at the PSAC Championships. All records that Carney set during his career remain 10 years later.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Millersville, Carney attended graduate school at Penn State and continued to compete. With a goal of competing at the Olympics, Carney built himself into one of the nation’s finest 10,000-meter runners. An employee of New Balance, Carney placed fourth at the U.S. Track & Field Championships in 2009 and placed sixth at the 2008 Olympic trials.
