STANFORD, Calif. – Annika Esvelt can check that item off of her track to-do list.
 
Esvelt raced her way into the NCAA qualifying picture in the women's 5000 meters on Friday night, going the distance in 16 minutes, 18.94 seconds at the Stanford Invitational.
 
As of Friday evening, with other meets still taking place around the country the rest of this weekend, Esvelt was No. 4 in the Division II national rankings. The three people ahead of her are Florence Uwajaneza of West Texas A&M, who ran 16:00.14 in the Texas Relays on Thursday, Natalie Graber of Grand Valley State (Michigan) with a 16;02.45 at Thursday's Raleigh Relays, and Kaylee Beyer of Winona State (Minnesota), with her time of 16:09.59 in the Wartburg Good Friday Challenge.
 
Esvelt's time, which was seventh in her section and 40th overall among the 101 finishers, should easily earn her a spot in the NCAAs on Memorial Day weekend in Emporia, Kansas. It would have been No. 13 on last year's entry list. The minimum number of national entries in any individual event is 20. The No. 20 entry time in 2023 was 16:29.67.
 
 

"I got a time that is probably good enough for nationals, and that's pretty exciting. That was one of my goals," said Esvelt, who was the only Division II runner in any of Friday's five sections of the 5K. "I wanted to PR, and I was close to that."
 
The race took place in less-than-ideal conditions.—about 50 degrees and rainy most of the day; It had let up by the time Esvelt took the starting line at 7:35 p.m., although it was drizzling again near the end.
 
Esvelt ran consistent splits throughout the 12½ laps: a pair of 76s and a 78 in the early going, three 79s in the middle, three 80s in latter stages, and a last lap of 75.72. Her final time was the second-best in her career, topped only by the 16:14.31 that she posted at the West Coast Relays in Fresno on April 1, 2022.
 
"It was a lot fun, and I was happy with how I was able to stay focused," Esvelt said. "Parts of it were tough. The part where I was leading (the chase pack) was kind of tough, and the part where I was on the outside was kind of tough. But overall, I was pretty consistent with the splits, and I feel like I ran really well."
 
This was Esvelt's first race since finishing 10th in the NCAA indoor 5000 on March 8 in Pittsburg, Kansas. In that one, she tripped and fell with about 400 meters to go, but still got back up to post an indoor personal-best time and finish in a second-team All-America position.
 
Later that afternoon, Esvelt was keeping a positive outlook and said she was "so revved up for outdoors" and was "really excited for Stanford."
 
Three weeks later, she was on the starting line again for her outdoor season debut.
 
"It went by really fast," Esvelt said of the gap between NCAAs and Friday's meet. "Coming off indoor where the track is so small and the conditions are so calm, I sometimes get worried about, 'Does the bigger track feel a lot more difficult?' But I wasn't really thinking about that today, so that was nice."
 
SPU assistant coach / distance coach Eric Hansen was happy not only with what Esvelt did, but also with how she did it.
 
 

"She had some pretty aggressive goals coming into today and I don't know if conditions were quite perfect enough, but she ran a good race – really aggressive," he said. "She was dead even on a 16:00 pace through 2200 meters and that's probably the fastest she has ever come through at that point in the race. We had a couple of slower laps around 3K and 4K, but she had to do a lot of the work leading the chase pack.
 
"There was some wind she had to battle with, and a couple girls tried to take her over late in the second half. But she was able to respond and keep going with it," Hansen added. "If we get some ideal conditions, she's ready to rip one right now. Just four seconds off her PR is a pretty good showing."
 
Next up for Esvelt will be the 10,000 meters at the Bryan Clay Invitational, set for the weekend of April 11-12 in Azusa, California.
 
"I'm very excited for that one, as well," said Esvelt, a fourth-place finisher in that race at the 2022 NCAAs. "I've done a lot of the work for that already."
 
UP NEXT
Esvelt was the only Falcon competing this week. Everyone will be back in action next Friday, April 5, at the eighth annual Doris Heritage Invitational. Competition at Renton Memorial Stadium begins at 3:00 p.m. in the field and 4:00 p.m. on the track.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
Stanford Invitational
Friday, March 29, 2024
Cobb Track & Angell Field / Stanford, Calif.
 
SPU EVENTS ONLY
5000 – 1, Maddy Elmore (Oregon) 15:15.79.  SPU – 40, Annika Esvelt 16:18.94#
 
# NCAA provisional qualifying


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