Freshman Madison Nelson became BU's first national qualifier in the marathon at Saturday's Midland Half Marathon in Fremont. Temperatures around 40 degrees and a stiff breeze greeted the field of 65 runners from NAIA schools from Nebraska, Iowa, and the Dakotas. The course is laid out to give the runners a tailwind for most of the distance and 20 men and a dozen women met qualifying standards.
In order to qualify for the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships in the full marathon, a male runner needs to complete the half-marathon race with a time of 1 hour, 13 minutes for automatic qualification (the "A" standard) or may qualify by meeting the "B" standard of 1 hour, 14 minutes, 30 seconds. In the women's division, a runner must complete the race within 1 hour, 29 minutes ('A" standard), and 1 hour, 31 minutes ("B"). The national championship marathon is held in conjunction with the outdoor track and field championships to be held this May in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
BU's Nelson crossed the line today in 1:29:29 to meet the "B" standard. Head Coach Craig Christians commented that "in my time at BU, everyone who has met the "B" standard has qualified for the outdoor championships." Nelson adds that to her growing resume' as she was the 2021 NSAA Conference Cross Country champion and placed 134th at the NAIA national cross country championship in November.
Representing the Bruin men today was Desyebelew Debesh and his run of 1 hour, 15 minutes, and 10 seconds was just 40 seconds off the men's "B" standard as he placed 22nd overall.
Coach Christians: "It's always great to have representatives in this race and we had a couple of awesome showings today. Madison just continues to impress me with her performances. She started very conservatively (7:01 pace through 3 miles) since this was her first effort at the distance and she continued to pick up the pace until we could see she had a shot at the "B" at about 9 miles. She crushed the last few miles, averaging 6:40 per mile for the last four miles, and easily eclipsed the lower standard, coming very close to the "A." Des' race was a reverse of Madison's starting out at a brisk 5:34 per mile pace but slowing just a little too much to hang on to the "B." He still ran the best any Bruin man has run on this course, averaging 5:44 per mile, so he walks away with the school record as a consolation prize. Not a bad day's work."
The next action for the Bruin distance squads will take place on January 15 when they travel to Doane University for an indoor track meet.
