Mariko Tansey Holbrook isn't your average Division III college athlete. The Phi Betta Kappa recipient has garnered an astounding eight All-America honors during her illustrious career as one of Brandeis' finest track and cross-country performers.A biology major who interned last summer at a genetics lab at prestigious Brigham and Women's Hospital, Holbrook is a self-described perfectionist. "I like doing well in things," she said. "Whether it be running or whether it be academics. I'm pretty focused on goals, so I will work really hard just to try to attain those."

"Whether it's All-America honors or Phi Betta Kappa," adds the Trumansburg, N.Y. native, "it's nice to get the recognition, to know that all my hard work has paid off."

Holbrook's All-America accolades started pouring in during her breakout sophomore season when she was honored for her record-setting times in the 3,000 meters event. During her junior year, Holbrook was an All-America for her exploits in the 5,000 meters. This past season, her best times were in the 5,000 and distance medley. And as if there were any doubt about her dominance, Holbrook is a four-time All-UAA honoree.

This is certainly a decent resume for someone who originally thought of Brandies as her "safety school" and only applied at the last minute. Brandeis Athletic Director Jeff Cohen recently announced that Tansey Holbrook had received the Max Silber award as the University's outstanding female athlete and had been nominated for the Linsey Fellowship, which Cohen says is "awarded annually to a graduating senior who has excelled both as a student and athlete and who will attend graduate school next year."

"Mariko is one of the finest runners in Brandeis history," Cohen said, "and has represented the University magnificently throughout her career. It has been a great pleasure having Mariko in our program and we hope that her running career continues to a possible Olympic trials invitation. She is a superb runner, a wonderful person, and a great student."

Holbrook, however, wasn't immediately anointed the savior of Brandeis track and field. She admits to setting her sights relatively low as a first-year. "When I was coming into college,my biggest goal was to make it to nationals, and not so much individually - I didn't think that was a possibility," she said. "I was thinking more along the lines of cross country with the team, and that was a big transition for me, because freshman year we didn't make it as a team by about one spot and a couple of points."

Holbrook, who plans to enroll in the fall in a Master's / PhD. Program at UMass-Amherst specializing in exercise science, is well-versed in the art of budgeting her time between work and play. "I guess the biggest thing is time management," she said. "I find that it helps me to actually balance my time. My athletics help me in my academics, because I'm the sort of person that does better when I have things on my plate and I have to devote a lot of time to each of them. If I just have a whole lot of free time, I'm just going to waste it."

Holbrook, as humble as she is confident in her abilities, doesn't hesitate to credit her teammates - particularly her senior classmates - with the team's overall success. "They're phenomenal," she remarks. "My experience at Brandeis wouldn't be the same without the girls who are on the team, especially the girls who are all in the same class, like Caitlin (Malloy), Jess (Jessica Curlew), Kara (Diegoli), Katrina (Managan) and Hannah (Zaitlin)."

Holbrook, who usually takes about a month off after nationals to "build my mileage back-up by swimming or biking," has never shied away from a leadership role on the team. She also knows when to back off and push the right buttons.

"It depends on the season," she said. "During cross country, I think the girls would probably vouch that I'm a little more in-your-face and gung-ho.

"For cross country," Holbrook added, "almost every meet I'll usually put together a letter to the team just talking about the meet. Sort of what we need to do or maybe just trying to be goofy and silly to just get people to lighten up depending on the attitude I see."

While Holbrook cites a sprained ankle during her junior year as "the only injury that ever stopped me from running for a solid period of time," the team did experience an unexpected coaching change before the start of her junior year.

Head Coach Bruce Bickford, a former Olympian, left Brandeis for the University of Southern Maine amid controversy that his runners didn't see eye to eye with their coach. "Personally," Holbrook said, "I got along with him. During my sophomore year, when I made improvements, he was a good coach for me, because my learning style and his coaching style meshed. But, overall, if you didn't have a certain mindset about running, you didn't necessarily get along with him."

Despite Bickford's mixed popularity among her teammates, Holbrook was upset about the abrupt news of the coach's departure. "I kind of freaked out when I heard about it," Holbrook said, "because he only told me at the beginning of August, and the season was going to start in three weeks."

Fortunately for Holbrook and the rest of the squad, assistant coach Jean Cann, who had just given birth to a baby boy following her first season at Brandeis, accepted the job. "That was a great transition," Holbrook said, "because she had already been around for a year as an assistant coach, so I sort of had an idea of how to work with her."

"Jean is just a phenomenal coach," Holbrook added. "She's very good at developing people and really working with people and trying to find their running fit. I've continued to improve by leaps and bounds with her as coach. And at the same time, she's very much like family. Her and our assistant coach Jamie (Chisum), and her husband and his wife, are all part of this little support network that you can always count on."

While Mariko admits her future is uncertain, she's given thought to medical school and physical therapy training in addition to the UMass program.

"Exercise really fascinates me," she said, "so I like trying to teach people about that and help them incorporate that into their lives, because I feel like that made such a big difference in my life."

It's only fitting that Holbrook, after graduating, will go for her mind-boggling ninth All-America honor a week after graduation at St. Lawrence University (Canton, N.Y..). The event will be a culmination in more ways than one, as Mariko's track coach at Trumansburg's Charles O. Dickerson High School, Bryce DeSantis, gets to see his star pupil perform for the first time with the Judges. Unfortunately, it will be our last glimpse of her greatness.