Senior Annika Urban cemented herself in the Division III history books with a run for the ages becoming the first Emory Eagle to win an individual championship, in any event, at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships in the program’s history. Urban won the individual championship in the one mile run and would later earn All-American status in the 3,000m run by virtue of finishing in third place.
Urban turned in one of the best performances in any event in program history winning the one mile run in a time of 4:43.17, besting the second place finisher by nearly four seconds. Urban’s time established a new NCAA DIII Indoor Championship record beating out the previous record of 4:43.92 established by Wartburg’s Missy Buttry in 2005.
Urban opened the race alongside Hope’s Anastasia Tucker and Carleton’s Clara Mayfield and the three of them jumped out to a quick lead, creating a three person pack, and it stayed that way for the duration of the race. Urban was in second behind Mayfield trailing her by a stride for the first half of the race before kicking it into another gear passing up Mayfield on a straightaway and never looking back as she ran the fastest time in the one mile run in Division III this season.
On top of the Championship records she broke, Urban also broke her own program record in the one mile run which was a time of 4:50.74 that she set earlier in February. Urban becomes the second Eagle to earn All-American status in the one mile run alongside Gabrielle Stravach who came in second at the championships in 2018.
Despite nine second place finishes in a variety of events, no Eagle had ever taken home an individual national title in any event in the program’s 43-year history until Urban won the one mile run on Saturday. Urban is the first Eagle in program history to earn All-American status in the 3,000m run as she raced to the second fastest time in program history on Saturday.
On top of her historic day in the one mile run, Urban competed in the 3,000m run under two hours later finishing with a time of 9:32.05 to end in third place, the highest finish for an Eagle in the event in the team history.
As a result of her performances on Saturday, Urban became just the sixth Eagle to earn two All-American honors in the same season and the first since Dani Bland in 2019.
This concludes the indoor track & field season for the Eagles but they will begin the outdoor season next weekend with the Emory Spring Break Classic hosted on Emory’s campus.
