GENEVA, Ohio – Baldwin Wallace University junior distance runner Kelly Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) finished as the national runner-up in the 800-meter run at the 2019 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships, hosted by the University of Mount Union and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission at SPIRE Institute.
Brennan improves on her sixth-place finish in 2018 and notches the third All-American honor of her career with all three coming in the 800. In the preliminaries on Friday, the junior advanced to the finals by winning her heat in a time of 2:11.30 seconds, the fifth-fastest time overall. Brennan then broke her own school record in the event finals as she ran a time of 2:09.71 to finish as the national-runner up, 4.5 seconds behind the champion.
In other finals action on the third day of competition, freshman All-Ohio Athletic Conference distance runner Alyssa Laughner (Howard, Pa./Central Mountain) became the top freshman in the 3,000-meter steeplechase as she placed ninth in a time of 11:09.14, which was just 3 seconds off the podium for an All-America honor. She came into the preliminaries on Thursday ranked 18th in the event and qualified to the finals by finishing 13th of 21 runners in 11:00.51. In her first national meet, junior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC thrower Brooke Buckhannon (Collins/Western Reserve) took 12th in the hammer throw with a toss of 162 feet, 6.5 inches, after coming into the event ranked ninth in the country.
On Friday, freshman All-OAC hurdler Amanda Milo (Akron/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy) competed in the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles, where she came into the event with the 13th-best time in the country of 14.37 seconds. She wrapped up her stellar freshman campaign by finishing 19th of 22 runners in 14.90 seconds.
With Brennan's eight points as a runner-up, BW finished tied for 33rd as a team. All four Yellow Jackets will seek a return to the national meet in 2020 as BW finished off a successful outdoor campaign which saw it third at the All-Ohio Championships and fourth at the OAC Championships.
