Lady Polar Bears Know How to Run

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ONU's Women's Indoor Track Team

While I was getting ready to perform in Near West Theatre's benefit, fellow Polar Bear, Emily Richards, won first place titles in the 800 meter and mile at the NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track & Field Championships on March 10 at the Birmingham Cross Plex in Alabama. I found this story on the Ohio Northern University (ONU) sports website. The senior chemistry major also received an All-American title with a third place finish in the 3,000-meter run at the event.
Richards began the day by winning the mile in 4:51.24, beating the second place runner by 1.52 seconds. This was the second time she won the event indoors. Richards has also won this event in the outdoor championships. I can't even imagine winning a national title once, but this girl did it three times! A short 50 minutes later, Richards pulverized the competition in the 800 with a time of 2:06.53. This was a full 2.25 seconds ahead of the other runners and set a new NCAA III meet record.
It was the second consecutive 800 indoor title for Richards in the race (fourth overall) and set up her quest for a trifecta just 55 minutes later. This trifecta is especially difficult and not fun, because it involves running  and winning the 800 meter race, 1,600 meter race and 3,000 meter race. Maybe this is fun for her, but for me this would probably be too much running.
Richards gave it her best shot in the 3,000 meters and finished with a time of 9:39.29, which put her at third place. She is now a 7-time NCAA Champion, a 10-time All-American in Track and Field, a ninth place finisher at the 2017 NCAA III Cross Country Championships.
The rest of the women's team did amazing too! The team racked up 30 points and pulled off a third place finish. This is the highest finish by any women's track team in the school's history.
Another fun statistic that was accomplished by the Men's and Women's Indoor Track Teams, comes from Richards and Ohio Northern's Matt Molinaro. Molinaro won the Men's 800, which marks just the second time in Division III history and the fourth time at any NCAA level that athletes from the same university both won the 800 meter titles.
I had no idea how successful ONU's track program was, and it makes me proud to know just how amazing my fellow Polar Bears are doing in their athletic endeavors. Go Polar Bears!

Comments

  1. AbbyMarch 20, 2018 at 9:43 AM

    Go bears am I right? I love hearing about how successful our little school has become. Emily is honestly killing the game. I cannot tell you the amount of times I hear people in our call center say "emiy richards..." Thanks for the post about all her specifics because it was informative to read what exactly she did!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adelyn HelmsMarch 25, 2018 at 2:45 PM

    This is awesome! I actually used to run track in high school and the 800 was also the race I ran. I don't keep up with ONU's sports teams but I'm happy to hear we are doing well. Especially in women's sports and in a sport that is not as popular. Thanks for posting about this!

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