by Greg Chandler
After earning All-American honors in the women's 5,000 meters at last year's NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships, Hope College's Ana Tucker decided on a bigger goal for this year: achieving All-American honors in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races.
"She said, 'I want to do the double,'" Hope assistant track coach Mark Northuis said. "We set up a whole year of training to get her to do this, and she came through."
On Saturday, the junior from Midland, Michigan (H.H. Dow HS) broke her own school record in the 5,000 meters as she finished fifth at the NCAA championships at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio in a time of 16 minutes, 36.43 seconds. It was her second All-American performance of the meet, following her eighth-place showing in the 10,000 meters on Thursday, and her fourth of her career.
Tucker broke the school record she set at the Drake Relays April 27 by slightly more than a half-second.
Tucker finished fourth in the nation in the 5,000 last year with a time of 16:40.66. This year, she closed out with the fastest time of any runner over the final 400 meters of the race, running a 1:11.13 split to pull away from rival Sadie Heeringa of Calvin University, who finished sixth in 16:37.23.
"She was very, very strong," said Northuis, who had to leave the NCAA meet early to return to Holland because of an illness in the family. Head track coach Kevin Cole made the trip to Ohio to coach Tucker for the race.
Hope's Track and Field All-Americans by event
Photo of Ana Tucker by Steve Frommell of d3photography.com
"We wanted [her] to hold 80 seconds [splits] for the first 6-7 laps, and go from there. She was able to do that."
Ari Marks of Wellesley (Mass.) College won the race by more than 10 seconds in a time of 16:08.90. Marks also won the 10,000 on Thursday.
It's also the fourth time a Hope runner has earned All-American honors in the 5,000. Marcia VanderSall earned back-to-back All-American honors in the 5,000 in 1992 and 1993, finishing sixth both times.
Tucker earned indoor track All-American honors in 2020 after the NCAA Division III national meet was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's a lot of work she put in, and I'm glad it paid off," Northuis said.
