University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
NCAA Championship (Day 2)
MacLean Takes Ninth in Mile at NCAA Championship
March 12, 2016 | Women's Track & Field
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - University of Massachusetts junior Heather MacLean took ninth in the mile final at the 2016 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship on Saturday at Birmingham CrossPlex. With her performance at the NCAA Championship, the Peabody, Mass. native has earned Second Team All-America honors to become the first indoor track and field All-American in the 40-year history of the program.
MacLean ran 4 minutes, 43.29 seconds in the field of 10 runners after placing third both in her heat and overall in the preliminaries with a time of 4 minutes, 36.55 seconds that improved upon her previous school record of 4:37.80.
“Heather has shown a tremendous improvement this year starting in cross country, but accelerating rapidly during the indoor track season, which included seamlessly transitioning to a new event, the mile," said UMass head coach Julie LaFreniere. "She has ended the indoor portion of our schedule as one of the top-10 collegiate milers in the nation and I am very proud of her. She is a joy to coach and is an exceptional human being. I look forward to seeing what she can accomplish this outdoor season.”
With her weekend at the NCAA Championship, MacLean capped off an outstanding 2016 indoor season, adding to her impressive career accomplishments from her freshman and sophomore campaigns. In February, MacLean helped the Minutewomen win their first Atlantic 10 Indoor Track and Field championship since 1998 as she was the A-10 Women’s Most Outstanding Track Performer at the conference meet after winning gold medals in the 800m, mile and distance medley relay, along with a bronze medal in the 4x400m relay. She then followed up by capturing her third career indoor New England Championship title in the 800m and broke a 28-year-old meet record in the event. In addition, she also set the Atlantic 10 Championship record in the 800m (2:09.06) and UMass records in the 800m (2:05.00), 1,000m (2:47.21) and mile (4:36.55) this season.
MacLean’s performance marked the sixth time a member of the Minutewomen has competed at a NCAA Championship meet and just the second indoors as Kelly Liljeblad ran in the 3,000m at the NCAA Indoor Championship in 1995. She became UMass’ first NCAA qualifier since Christina DeRosa in the 10,000m outdoors in 2008 and joins Liljeblad, a 2015 UMass Hall of Fame inductee who took fifth in the 10,000m in 1995, as the Minutewomen’s second All-American overall.
For continued coverage of UMass women’s track and field, follow the team on Twitter @UMass_XC_TF and on UMassAthletics.com.
