INDIANAPOLIS — After all the final qualifying meets ended and NCAA Division III teams declared their athletes for events, the NCAA released a participant list for the 2025 Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships which will be held at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Eastern's Hailey Shreffler will return to the National Meet to race in the 800 Meter run. 

Shreffler ahs seen her times drop in all her events over her career, but her accomplishment in the 800 has been remarkable. At her first indoor meet in January of 2022, Shreffler finished 6th with a time just under 2:40. By the end of her first indoor season, she brought that time down to 2:31.81 at the MAC Championships. 

She finished 7th in the event at the 2022 Outdoor MAC Championships and had moved her PR down to 2:21.27 where it stayed through a tough sophomore reason.

Shreffler broke the 2:20 barrier for the first time last April in a race at Johns Hopkins. She finished fifth in that race. Two of the athletes from that race, Tanise Thornton-Fillyaw from Goucher and Emily Moehringer from Catholic will also be racing in the event this weekend. Thornton-Fillyaw (2:05.28) finished third at last year's outdoor championships and has the best time in the country this year. 

Shreffler then ran a 2:16.82 at MAC Championships and dropped 5.7 more seconds off her best to run a program-record  2:11.1 at the 2024 Widener LCQ.

After claiming the double in the 1500 and 800 and securing Track Athlete of the Meet Honors at the 2025 MAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Shreffler hit another milestone by dropping under the 2:10 mark for the first time with her run at Widener. 

With her time inside the top 20 and the first 22 times guaranteed a spot, the senior knew her place was secure. Shreffler had moved up to 17th on the national list with her career-best 2:09.87 set at Widener, and two athletes moved in front of her runs at a later meet. Leading up to the 2024 National Meet, Shreffler sat in the 23rd spot, but she moved into the field when athletes who had qualified for multiple events opted out of the 800. In distance events, it is fairly routine for at least a couple athletes to qualify for multiple events and strategically pick events. 

As it has both prelims and finals, the 800 is usually a race that at least one athlete will chose to avoid. This year, however, the qualifying list is the entry list. The top 22 800 Meter runners all opted in to the race. With all the qualifying times inside a tight five-second band, the prelims are likely to go out fast and finish faster. 

Megan Bell from Rochester qualified in both the 800 and the 1500 and was one of five runners to opt out of the 1500. One of the runners who did not declare for the 800 last year, Ellie Rising from George Fox, is opting to try the very difficult double. Moehringer and Annie Huang from Johns Hopkins will join her in attempting that challenge. The prelims for the 1500 are on Thursday and prelims for the 800 are on Friday. An athlete who qualifies for a final in both events would have about 80 minutes to recover for the 800 after competing in the 1500. Esther Seeland won both events in 2022.

In its ten years, Eastern Track and Field has had 11 entries at the Outdoor National Championships. 

The NCAA will stream all track events and many field events through its website.