Roelle earns third career NAIA All-American honors for EOU
Rachel Roelle
The Eastern Oregon runner earned top-eight finishes in the 3,000 meters and the distance medley relay for her third career All-American finish.
In 2016, she was eighth in the 1,000 meters. This time she was fifth in the 3,000 and anchored the DMR to an eighth-place finish.
Her time in the 3,000 [10:03.97] was a 5.52-second personal record.
The women’s DMR entered the meet ranked 12th and ran a school record 12:01.57 in the prelims to advance to the finals, due in a large part by Roelle’s outstanding 4:59.4 anchor leg over the final 1,600 meters.
That time was about 15 seconds faster than their qualifying time at the University of Washington back in February.
Roelle, of West High fame, had only 45 minutes of rest between finals.
“Rachel is incredibly tough and showed that this weekend with three very tough performances (between Thursday and today),” Eastern Oregon coach Ben Welch told me.
“What an outstanding way to close out her collegiate indoor career.”
She is the fifth Alaskan to repeat as an All-American at Eastern Oregon, joining brother Hans Roelle of Anchorage, brothers Isaac and Lucas Updike from Ketchikan and Kelsey Jones from Seward.