Sara Schermerhorn Sprints into 400-Meter Final at NCAA Division 3 Indoor Championships

Pictured, sprinter Sara Schermerhorn

Hope College's Sara Schermerhorn is running after an indoor national championship for the first time.

The sophomore sprinter from Traverse City, Michigan (Traverse City West HS) qualified for the finals in the 400 meters on Saturday, March 9, at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships in Virginia Beach, Va.

Schermerhorn is scheduled to run at 4:25 p.m. at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

On Friday, Schermerhorn clocked a qualifying and school-record time of 56.09 seconds during the preliminaries for the 400 meters.

It was the sixth-fastest run among eight qualifiers for the finals. Buffalo State's Natalie Sawyer recorded the top qualifying time at 55.56 seconds.

Schermerhorn can become Hope's first indoor All-American in the event by finishing Saturday's race.

In the 200 meters, Schermerhorn finished a personal-best 11th at nationals, which was five places higher than her 16th-place effort in the event as a freshman.

Schermerhorn recorded a time of 24.86 seconds. North Carolina Wesleyan University's Kamiyah Wooten won the prelim with a sprint of 24.30 seconds.

Schermerhorn returned to indoor nationals after not qualifying in the 200 meters last year as a freshman, finishing 19th in the nation in the preliminaries.

"Sara ran a great 400 [meters] to start things off," said head coach Kevin Cole. "She had a pretty quick turnaround to the 200 but still managed to run one of her best times [in the event]."

In the 5,000 meters, senior Rebecca Markham (Hoffman Estates, Illinois /William Fremd) placed 17th in the nation in her first trip to indoor nationals.

Markham clocked a time of 17:17.39.

"Rebecca ran a great race against some very tough competition," Cole said. "I was really impressed with our athletes today."

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Players Mentioned

Rebecca Markham: Senior; Engineering

Sara Schermerhorn: Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Rebecca Markham
: Senior; Engineering

Sara Schermerhorn
: Sophomore