HARRISONBURG, Va., Oct. 15, 2009 - Four former standout student-athletes and the university president under whose leadership a comprehensive Division I athletics program developed were inducted into James Madison University's Athletic Hall of Fame Thursday night.

Inducted during JMU's first fall hall of fame ceremony were former student-athletes Lynn Craun (lacrosse), Missy Dudley-Heft (basketball), Bethany Eigel (cross country/track and field) and Todd Winterfeldt (baseball) and former JMU president Dr. Ronald E. Carrier.

The hall of fame ceremony took place at JMU's Festival Student and Conference Center.  The 2009 ceremony was JMU's first stand-alone athletic hall of fame banquet and the first time inductions have taken place during the fall.  Hall of fame inductions previously were part of JMU's spring Greater Madison, Inc., banquet, which also included current student-athlete recognitions.

The 2009 inductees are the hall of fame's 22nd group of honorees.

Dr. Carrier was JMU's president from 1971-98, a period of tremendous growth at JMU overall and for the athletics program.  JMU's intercollegiate sports offerings grew under the leadership of Dr. Carrier and athletics director Dean Ehlers, including the addition of football in 1972.  JMU's move to the NCAA's Division I level of competition took place while Dr. Carrier was president, and many of the university's current athletics facilities were established during his tenure.

Craun was a lacrosse standout as a JMU undergraduate and more recently has become an accomplished game official.  She was selected to the 1980 and 1982 U.S. Lacrosse teams, was named to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2008, was named to the U.S. Lacrosse Charlottesville Chapter Hall of Fame in 1999, and officiated at the last two Federaton of International Lacrosse World Cups in addition to the 1999 FIL Under-19 World Championship.

Dudley-Heft was a member of four JMU women's basketball teams that had combined records of 108-16, won four consecutive Colonial Athletic Association championships and advanced in NCAA Tournament play four times.  She was named to the CAA Team of the Decade (1985-95) and scored 1,284 career points.

Eigel was a four-time All-America as a distance runner.  She placed ninth in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Championships and was a member of an All-America indoor distance medley relay team in 1997.  She was an All-America in the indoor 3,000 meters, placing eighth in 1998, and in the outdoor 3,000 meters, placing 12th in 2000.

Winterfeldt before a lengthy professional baseball career was a three-year starting centerfielder on JMU baseball teams that had a combined record of 89-26 and placed second in the 1976 NCAA Division II South Atlantic Regional Tournament.  He remains on JMU's all-time top-10 career lists for batting average (.371), triples (16) and stolen bases (56), and he was first-team All-South Atlantic Region and all-regional tournament and a third-team All-America in 1976.

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