In her first 5,000-meters of the season and on the heels of teammate
Tanya Zeferjahn (Hesperia, Calif., Hesperia High School) collegiate-leading mark of 16:13.00, the Royals'
Meagan Nedlo (Mt. Pleasant, TX, Pittsburg, HS) posted an automatic NCAA national qualifying mark of 16:54.67 for eighth place in the championship 5k at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York City on Friday.
Nedlo ran even splits through the mile (5:21) and 3k (10:06) at the back of the pack before beginning to move aggressively over the last mile moving from 14th to eighth.
Nelly Spense of Shippensburg won the race with a time of 16:13.01, narrowly keeping Zeferjahn as both the DII and the overall collegiate women's 5k leader for the season by 1/100th of a second.
Nedlo narrowly missed the national championships in 2009 having only met the provisional mark, but has punched her ticket for the 2010 championships to be held in Albuquerque, N.M., March 12-13.
The Royals'
Jessica Neville (Cold Spring, N.Y., Haldane ) and Zeferjahn are both yet to compete in Friday night's 4k and Saturday's championship mile, respectively.
| 1 |
Spence, Neely |
Shippensburg |
16:13.0 |
| 2 |
Munoz, Christina |
Texas A&M |
16:37.4 |
| 3 |
Sceats, Rochelle |
George Mason |
16:44.8 |
| 4 |
Bowen, Katie |
Brigham Young |
16:46.2 |
| 5 |
Andrews, Katy |
Brigham Young |
16:52.1 |
| 6 |
Devlin, Katherine |
Texas A&M |
16:53.7 |
| 8 |
Nedlo, Meagan |
Queens Univ. |
16:54.7 |
| 9 |
Nielsen, Nicole |
Brigham Young |
17:03.0 |
| 10 |
Dell, Mary |
Shippensburg |
17:04.0 |
| 11 |
Biwott, Beatrice |
South Carolina |
17:13.3 |
| 12 |
Guzman, Michelle |
Texas Tech |
17:24.6 |
| 13 |
Frey, Sarah |
Brigham Young |
17:26.3 |