Virginia Beach, VA --- WPI's Grace Hadley (North Reading, MA) set a new NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field championship record time en route to winning the mile in commanding fashion Saturday afternoon at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.  The graduate student, who was the anchor leg on Friday night's DMR championship foursome, also set a new school record in the mile on Saturday, winning virtually wire-to-to-wire in a time of 4:42.36
 
That however was not Hadley's final moment at the 2024 Championships as the graduate student returned just over 90 minutes after the mile and earned her third All-America citation of the meet and fourth of her career with a fourth place finish in the 3,000 meters. 
 
The 15 points amassed by Hadley on Saturday, combined with the 10 racked up on Friday for winning the DMR on Friday, totaled 25 for the Engineers, giving Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Brian Chabot and Track and Field head coach Emily Mauro's squad a seventh place team placing, the best in school history.  Loras won the team title with 51 points as 65 teams tallied points at the event.  
 
Hadley entered the event as the top seed with a time of 4:45.94 and posted the fast time of Friday's prelims (4:51.44).  Fatigue was a concern for Saturday as the night before she clocked a jaw-dropping 1,600 meter anchor leg of 4:40.16 (a mile is 1,609 meters) as the Crimson and Gray rallied from a nearly 14-second deficit to post the dramatic DMR crown. Hadley quickly crushed the hopes of the rest of the field by emerging from the double water fall start in first with a split of 36.78 over the first 209 meters and wasn't really threatened the rest of the way.   
 
St. Lawrence's Allison Sibold was second, over eight seconds behind in a time of 4:50.97, edging out Wartburg's Aubrie Fisher in a photo finish as the duo posted identical times.  The event was NEWMAC dominated as MIT's Lexi Fernandez (4:54.24) and Smith's Pria Parker (4:54.37) were fifth and sixth respectively while Wellesley's Ella Whinney and MIT's Rujuta Sane also competed Friday in the 20-person field.
 
Hadley's second All-America performance of the day and third of the weekend came in the 3,000 meters. Seeded seventh, she established yet another school record with a time of 9:34.64.   Hadley went out with the pack, set seventh through 800 meters and settled into fourth and fifth for the rest of the race, eventually placing fourth, just 0.65 seconds out of third. Fiona Smith of St. Benedict claimed her second national championship of the meet and third of the year (5000 meters and 2023 Cross Country Championship) with a time of 9:25.97.
 
Prior to this weekend, WPI had two national championships in over 100 years of varsity athletics and in 50 years of Division III.  Eric Meerbach '87 captured the 1986 NCAA Division III Men's Golf championship and in May of 2022 the Women's Rowing Varsity won the NCAA Division III National Championship race at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida.  Joining Hadley on Friday's winning DMR squad was Amelia Kokernak (Niskayuna, NY), Isabel Hallal (Foxboro, MA) and Elise Deshusses (Chapel Hill, NC) while the WPI men's team saw sophomore Gavin Fleck (Bend, OR) earn his first career All-America citation by clearing a school record height of 16-4.

WPI will now turn its attention to the outdoor track and field season, beginning in three weeks with Hadley and David Reynolds scheduled to participate in the Raleigh Relays at NC State on Friday, March 29th and the rest of the two teams in the Corsair Classic hosted by UMass Dartmouth the following day.
 
Results | Women's Mile Final | Women's 3k Final