Fredonia junior sprinter Brittany Feldman (Jamestown/Southwestern) finished seventh Saturday in the women's 400-meter final at the NCAA Division III Track & Field championship meet.
The seventh-place finish earned Feldman her second All-America award. Wadeline Jonathas, a freshman from U. Mass.-Boston, won the event in 52.81 seconds, a new NCAA Division III record.
"It feels amazing," Feldman said. "I worked really hard during the season.to get where I am today. I came in very confident and that helped me alot the past two days.
She set a school record during preliminaries Friday with a time of 55.29 seconds. Her finals time Saturday was 55.39 seconds.
"She ran really well on Friday," Fredonia Assistant Coach Ryan Pericozzi said. "This is the first nationals she actually had a chance to train for (and) not make it at the last minute...Her goal yesterday was to qualify for today and she ran really, really fast. Today was to see how high she could finish."
"I wanted to be top two in the heat yesterday to qualify for today," Feldman said. "The (school-record) time just came with it. I felt great in the first 200 and just finished strong. It felt great."
Her previous national honor came in the 400 at the 2014 indoor championship meet. She looks forward to one more season of collegiate competition.
"Sub-55 (second) and top-five nationally," she said when asked what her goal next season would be.
"Two-time All-America is not easy to do," Pericozzi said."Very few people in the country have the opportunity to witness an NCAA meet. Being in the top eight twice is definitely a huge accomplishment. We're not done yet."
