D'Agostino Finishes Third in 5,000 meters at NCAA Championship

Friday, June 10

Des Moines, Iowa

TBA

Dartmouth College

NCAA Championship

D'Agostino Finishes Third in 5,000 meters at NCAA Championship

6/10/2011 9:00:00 PM | Women's Track & Field

By: Dartmouth

DES MOINES, IOWA — Freshman Abbey D'Agostino (Topsfield, Mass.) reset her own school record with a time of 15.40.69, and placed third in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championship on Friday. The finish earned D'Agostino first team All-America honors. The competition took place at Drake Stadium.

The 5,000 meters consisted of 24 competitors, and the athletes were bunched for a majority of the race. A group of five separated from the pack with 800 meters remaining in the race. D'Agostino was in fifth when the pack separated, but moved into fourth with 400 meters left. She stayed in fourth for a majority of the final lap, but caught Oregon's Jordan Hasay in the last 50 meters to claim third.

Junior Sheila Reid of Villanova won the competition with a strong final kick at 15:37.57. Sophomore Emily Infeld of Georgetown finished second right on her heels at 15:38.23.

D'Agostino crushed her own school record that she set two weeks ago at the NCAA East Regional Preliminaries. At the regional, she finished with a time of 15.59.89. Her time at the NCAA Championship improved on that time by 19.20 seconds, which is an eternity in a race of that length.

The time of 15:40.69 is also the fastest time ever by an athlete from the Ivy League. Katie O'Neill of Yale had a time of 15:51.30 in 2003. D'Agostino's finish also bested the A standard qualifying time (15:46.00) for the U.S.A Championships and the Olympic trial qualifying time (15:43.00).

She is the first women's track athlete to earn All-America honors since Shaina Damm '02 and Ryan Fagan '02 in 2002.

The race took place an hour after its scheduled time due to a lightning delay early on day three of the championship. The rain had stopped by the start of the event, but the track was still visibly wet.

The third-place finish gave the Big Green six team points, and they finished in a tie for 40th place at the championship.