Thompson earns All-American in 10,000m; Dello Russo Advances in 200
Championship website
LA CROSSE, Wis. -- Utilizing a consistent race strategy to combat warm temperatures Thursday, Nazareth graduate student
Emily Thompson finished in sixth place in the 10,000-meter run to earn All-American honors at the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships at Wisconsin-La Crosse's Roger Harring Stadium.
Gina Dello Russo of Stevens Institute of Technology qualified for the finals of the 200 meter dash on Day One of the competition on Thursday. Dello Russo finished second in her heat and will be seeded fifth overall in the finals on Sautrday.
Dello Russo's time was 24.88 seconds, lowering her own school-record by one-hundredth of a second.
With temperatures expected to reach 90 degrees in Wisconsin, the 10,000 meter race was moved to earlier in the day and Thompson responded with one of the best races of her life as she posted a time of 36:33.89 to become the Golden Flyers' first-ever outdoor track All-American. Ithaca's Taryn Cordani won the race in 35:03.20 with Bates' Katherine Cook in second place with a time of 35:17.48. The top eight finishers are recognized as All-Americans.
Cordani set an early pace and wouldn't be caught. That left Thompson in the next group of runners for the duration of the 25-lap race. She completed the first 400-meter lap in 1:27.7 and stayed between 1:26 and 1:29 until the final lap, which she completed by finishing strong in 1:23.7. "I knew that if I could maintain a pretty good pace that some of the other runners would drop off the pace as it got hotter," Thompson said. "As some of the others fell off the pace, I knew I had to keep chugging along."
The sixth-place finish caps a strong collegiate career for Thompson, who competed at the national meet in the 5,000-meter run during the indoor season. She set school records in the 1,500- and 5,000-meter runs in addition to the 10,000. She also won the Empire 8 Conference title in the 5,000 meters earlier this spring.
"I knew I wanted to compete at the nationals, but I didn't think about being an All-American," Thompson said. "I just wanted to enjoy my last (college) race ever. When you're relaxed and focused is usually when you run your best races."
Katie Weeks also competed on Thursday for Stevens, just missing the cut in the discus to finish 10th in the nation with a mark of 44.01 meters. She will return to action on Friday for the shot put competition.
Nazareth junior
Alycia Eaton also competed for the Golden Flyers in the long jump and finished in 20th place.
Eaton, an All-American in the triple jump for the Golden Flyers during the indoor season, didn't fare as well in Thursday's long jump. She had three jumps and wasn't among the nine athletes to reach the competition's final. Her best jump was 5.38 meters (17 feet, 8 inches), well off her personal-best of 18 feet, 11 1/4 inches that she produced at the All-Atlantic Regional meet at Brockport earlier this month.
St. John Fisher sophomore
Tayler Dence wrapped up the day for the Cardinals in the women's 400-meter hurdles preliminary round. The Hannibal native closed out her incredible 2018 campaign with a fifth place finish in her heat after she ran the race in 1:03.45. She finished 15th overall across all heats on the day.