Cross Country

Junior Isabel Seidel secured her spot in the Northwestern history books Friday, clocking the program’s fastest 3,000 meter steeplechase time at the 2017 Dr. Keeler Invitational.

Seidel won the event by nearly eight seconds, notching a time of 10:31.22, and improving upon her previous personal best time by more than two seconds. The mark sits as the No. 57 best time in the nation in the 2017 outdoor track season.

With the top 48 times guaranteed invitation to the NCAA Preliminaries, Seidel could still qualify a spot at the national competition if enough competitors choose to decline their invitations.

Earlier in the meet, freshman Aubrey Roberts dashed to her fastest 5,000 meter time of the season, clocking a final time of 16:25.23. The mark, which is the second-fastest time in school history, carried Roberts to a first-place finish. Roberts’ time sits behind former runner and now assistant coach Audrey Huth’s time in the Wildcats’ record books.

The performance was a 12-second improvement on Roberts’ previous best of the season. However, Roberts’ time is about 10 seconds behind the current qualifying time of 16:15.06 for the 2017 NCAA Preliminaries.

Freshman Sarah Nicholson also took to the track in the 5,000 meter run, recording a time of 16:43.63, as she crossed the line in second place behind only Roberts. The two freshmen stood atop a race leaderboard that was largely filled with upperclassman runners.

NU will need some good fortune for its season to continue, as the team will have to wait and hope that other competitors decline invitations to the preliminaries to have a shot at competing.

The NCAA Preliminaries will take place over Memorial Day Weekend in Austin, Texas.

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