ALLENDALE, Mich. – Dania Holmberg just ran the toughest 1500 meters that she has run all spring.
 
Now, she'll get to run 1500 more – her final 1500 – in a Seattle Pacific track uniform.
 
After getting caught up in a blistering pace through the middle two laps, Holmberg hung on for a sixth-place finish in her heat and 12^th place overall in the preliminaries at the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships on Thursday afternoon.
 
Holmberg's time of 4 minutes, 29.42 seconds was fast enough – by 47 hundredths of a second – to nab the last available spot for Saturday afternoon's championship race inside Grand Valley State Track & Field Stadium. The top four finishers in each of the two heats automatically advanced. Then, it was the next four fastest times, which included Holmberg's for the wild-card berths.
 
"Except for the last 250 meters, I couldn't have asked for a better race, just because I was in the mix for the entire time," she said. "That was my goal because the entire field was within 10 seconds of each other. I just tried to use that to my advantage."
 
The day did not go quite as well for fellow senior Scout Cai. Looking for a second straight top-8 finish in the pole vault, Cai got over the opening height of 12 feet, 5½ inches on her third and final attempt. But she went out on the next bar of 12-11½ and placed 13^th.
 
FINALLY, SOME COMPETITION
Holmberg ran the 1500 in five meets this season, and her closest winning margin was eight seconds. Just two weeks ago, she won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference crown by 10 seconds, clocking a personal-best 4:27.31.
 
On Thursday, she was in a race in which the other seven competitors were all faster than that. Holmberg was eager for that opportunity, and ran accordingly.
 
 

"It was nice not be the first person the entire time," she said. "I had people to chase; it was great.
 
Holmberg came through 700 meters (two laps to go) in 2:06.23; her GNAC split for that distance was 2:07.74. Holmberg took the bell for the final lap in 3:14.72 – a full five seconds faster than the 3:19.77 that she split at GNAC.
 
That caught up with her on the final lap. But knowing what was at stake, Holmberg pushed through to the finish line.
 
"It was a quick race from the gun, and I got boxed in pretty quickly," she said. "I kind of wish I had started a little bit faster. But overall, it didn't seem to hurt the position in the end."
 
 

Added Falcons associate head coach / distance coach Chris Reed, "It was a really tough, gritty race, and it was really nice to see her finally get some people to mix it up with throughout the course of the entire race – something she hasn't had all year. It was cool to see her take advantage of it. It was a faster pace than she was used to, that's for sure."
 
By finishing sixth, that meant seven of the eight runners in the second heat would have to beat Holmberg's time to keep her out of the final.
 
Only six of them did.
 
"Thankfully, she could hold onto sixth place and that gave her a little wiggle room going into the second heat, Reed said. "We watched that second heat pretty intently to see if she could come through, and she did."
 
Holmberg has a chance for an All-American award on Saturday if she can post a top-8 finish. That will be a motivating factor, but won't be her only one.
 
"All I know (getting) this far is just to have fun and just really to embrace this last race at SPU and really have a lot of fun," she said, "because these past four years have been such a blast and I just (want to) really embrace that I love racing."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
--The top five qualifiers for Saturday's final all came out of Holmberg's heat. Leading the way is Celine Ritter of Lee University in Tennessee. She posted a 4:22.66. The next three were within one second of her, with time ranging from 4:22.82 by pre-meet No. 1 seed Stefanie Parsons of Edinboro (Pa.) to 4:23.01 by Allie Ludge of host Grand Valley State.
-- The current No. 8 time, which would be the last spot on the awards podium, is 4:27.14.

UP NEXT
The meet continues on Friday, although the Falcons do not have any competitor on that day.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
NCAA Division II Championships
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Grand Valley State T&F Stadium / Allendale, Mich.
 
SPU EVENTS
1500 – 1, Celine Ritter (Edinboro) 4:22.66. SPU – 12, Dania Holmberg 4:29.42.
Pole vault – 1, Journey Gurley (N. Georgia) 13-11¼ / 4.25m. SPU – 13, Scout Cai 12-5½ / 3.80m.