MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.– On Friday evening, Hailey Shreffler will race in the 800 Meter Run at the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships. The junior standout learned today that she will run out of lane one in the third of three heats. The top finisher in each heat and the next five fastest times will secure a spot in Saturday's final. 

Shreffler earned her spot at the Championships with a fantastic finish to the year. After running several different events through the spring. She popped a 15-second personal best in the 1500 Meter Run to win the MAC Championship in that event. Even with that big effort, she ran back-to-back PR's in the 800 Meter Run at MAC Championships. With those big jumps forward, Shreffler and the coaching staff agreed to take a shot at the 800 Meters with good rest against a fast field at the Widener Last Chance Qualifier. Shreffler's time coming into that race was just inside the top100 nationally. 

As she had done in her last six individual races, Shreffler ran another PR. Her 2:11.11 was five and a half seconds better than her previous best. For a few days, that time stood as the 19th best time in the country. When four runners at the Augustana LCQ slipped below her time, Shreffler sat at 23rd overall. To get a shot to race at the Championships she would need just one athlete who ran a qualifying time to opt out of the race. 

Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Grace Hadley had run qualifying times in four events. She opted to focus on the 1500 Meter Run and the and 5000 Meter Run. When another runner with multiple qualifications opted to compete in the 1500, Shreffler was in as the 21st qualifier. Ellie Kitsmiller, the runner who finished a step behind her at the Widener meet got the final qualifying spot. Kitsmiller's 2:11.50 is the second fastest 'last time in' in Division III history.

Led by top-seed Emma Kelley, Washington University has four runners in the field. Kelley's 2:02.7 is the fastest seed time by over five seconds. The rest of the field sits in a very tight bunch between 2:08 and 2:11.5.

Shreffler will some some familiar faces in her heat tomorrow. Kitsmiller, Goucher's Tanise Thornton-Fillyaw, and Kayla Kass from Stockton were all in her heat at the Widener LCQ. The field has three other runners from the region, Annie Huang from Hopkins, Emily Moehringer from Catholic, and Kelly Oaster from Elizabethtown.

She will be the fourth Eastern woman to compete at an NCAA Outdoor Championship. Nicole Weenink competed in horizontal jumps in both 2018 and 2019, Kierra Zack ran the 1500 in 2019, and Mary Bernotas qualified in the Steeplechase in 2012 and 2022. She earned All-America Honors with a seventh-place finish in 2021. Katelyn Bernotas qualified for the 2020 Indoor Championships in the 800, but those Championships were among the first events canceled by COVID. Shreffler's time at Widener is a program record by three and a half seconds. 

The Women's 800 Prelims are slated to start at 6:00 pm, but the forecast has some inclement weather in the early afternoon that might push start times. Click the link to watch live on the NCAA website. 

The Women's 800 Final is scheduled to start at 5:50 on Saturday.