NCAA Division III Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships Preview

Junior Sara Schermerhorn is competing in the 200- and 400-meter runs

Sprinter Sara Schermerhorn is New York-bound this weekend, aiming to join an elite group of Hope College women's track and field runners.

The junior from Traverse City, Michigan (Traverse City West HS) could become the third in program history to be crowned a national champion.

Schermerhorn is racing in the 200 and 400 meters at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships on Friday-Saturday, March 14-15, at Nazareth University's Golisano Training Center in Rochester, New York.

The exercise science major and three-time indoor nationals qualifier aims to become Hope's first indoor national champion. Two Flying Dutch runners have claimed national titles at women's outdoor championships: Nora Kuiper in the 100 meters in 2009 and Erin Herrmann in the 3,000 meters in 2017.

On Friday, Schermerhorn first will race in the 400 prelims at 3:25 p.m. and the 200 prelims at 4:30 p.m. Eight qualify for Saturday's 4:40 p.m. 400 final and 5:30 p.m. 200 final.

The two-time MIAA Most Valuable Women's Indoor Track Athlete is seeded first out of 20 entrants in the 400 meters and ninth in the 200 meters. She was the MIAA champion in both events this season.

In the 400, Schermerhorn is one of two in the 20-runner field who have gone sub-56 seconds this season. Thirteen more are sub-57. The facility record is 56.41 seconds, set by Madeline O'Connor of the University of Rochester (New York) in 2022.

Schermerhorn clocked a school-record qualifying time of 55.31 on Feb. 14 at Grand Valley State University. McKenzie Reser of Augustana College (Illinois) is the second-fastest qualifier at 55.94.

Schermerhorn is the only returning 400 finalist from last season, when she placed seventh to become the Flying Dutch's first Indoor All-American in the event.

In the 200, 14 qualifiers, including Schermerhorn, clocked times under 25 seconds this season. The facility record is 25.35 seconds, set by Eshone Confield-Jackson of Utica College (New York) in 2020.

Schermerhorn posted a school-record qualifying time of 24.82 seconds at the MIAA Indoor Championships on March 1 at Trine University.

University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse's Lauren Jarrett holds the No. 1 seed at 24.26 seconds; the junior finished sixth in the 200 at last year's championships.

Two other 200 finalists from last season qualified this season: Kamiyah Wooten of North Carolina Wesleyan and Megan Geraets of Gustavus Adolphus College (Minnesota).

Schermerhorn finished 11th at nationals in the 200 meters as a sophomore and 19th as a freshman.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

Sara Schermerhorn: Junior; Exercise Science

Players Mentioned

Sara Schermerhorn
: Junior; Exercise Science