Teenager collapses and dies after cross country race

DECATUR - A DeKalb County high school student collapsed and died after completing a five-kilometer cross country race. <br> <br> Cedar Grove High School Principal Sheryl Croft identified the girl as 16-year-old Shai Lauren Owens, a junior. <br> <br> She was rushed to a hospital yesterday at 6 p.m. and pronounced dead two hours later. The cause of death was not immediately clear Wednesday. <br> <br> Marian Huhman, the mother of a Dunwoody High School runner and a trained nurse, came to Owens&#39; aid after she collapsed. She said several of Owens&#39; teammates checked to see if the girl was all right. <br> <br> Huhman said she and Doctor Doug Hamilton, a CDC epidemiologist who is the father of another Dunwoody High athlete, began performing CPR. <br> <br> DeKalb school policy requires students&#39; parents to sign permission forms that ask about pre-existing medical conditions. A DeKalb schools spokesman said he didn&#39;t know if Owens had undergone a physical examination before the cross country season. <br> <br> Huhman said the cross country race was over, and the girl had finished the three-point-one-miles race when she collapsed. The race at Shamrock Middle School was the first of the season run by any DeKalb public school.