Just 20 hours after qualifying for the final of the 3000 meter run, Katie Hansen (Portland, Ore.) finished 11th in that race Friday afternoon at the 2008 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Cal Poly Pomona at Hilmer Lodge Stadium on the campus of Mount San Antonio College (Mt. SAC).
Hansen finished the race in 10:08.20, just three seconds slower than the time she posted Thursday night to advance to the finals. However, the top eight finishers were able to break the ten-minute mark, something that only one runner was able to do during the preliminaries.
Runners from the West Region finished one-two in the race, with Sarah Montez of winning the event in 9:39.00, followed by Seattle Pacific’s Jane Larson, who posted a time of 9:41.20. Elizabeth Chepkosgei of Alaska Anchorage, the other West Region competitor in the 3000 meter run, finished just ahead of Hansen in tenth place with a time of 10:07.84.
Hansen’s performance closes out the 2007-08 competitive season for the athletic department. In all, eight of SU’s 14 teams were represented by at least one person in an NCAA regional, tournament, or championship event: men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s swimming, and women’s outdoor track and field.
The Redhawk women’s soccer team hosted first- and second-round matches, while the men’s swimming team, led by a national championship performance by Jakub Jiracek, finished a program-best eighth place in the NCAA Championships, and the softball team won one game in its regional competition. Combined, the six team sports at Seattle University (men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, and volleyball) posted a 114-56-2 overall record (.669), including a 61-38-1 record in GNAC play (.615). The men’s soccer team won another GNAC title, while the softball team earned a share of its first-ever conference crown.
Hansen became the last student-athlete to compete in an NCAA Division II championship. As the university begins the reclassification process towards Division I, no SU team is eligible to compete in NCAA postseason tournaments or championships until fall 2010, when the men’s and women’s soccer teams will be eligible as “fast-track” sports. The other 17 sports, including baseball, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s and women’s tennis, will not be eligible for NCAA postseason play until the 2012-2013 academic year.
Hansen, a junior academically, has one year of eligibility left in cross country, but two years remaining in indoor and outdoor track and field, as she sat out the 2007 indoor and outdoor seasons while recovering from a foot injury suffered during the 2006 cross country campaign. She will lead a strong running program as the cross country and track and field teams begin facing Division I competition during the 2008-09 season.