Denison sophomore Aedin Brennan etched her name in the Big Red track and field record books on Friday as she became the first female athlete in program history to earn three All-American honors. Brennan picked up her third certificate with a seventh-place finish in the heptathlon on Friday afternoon at the 2014 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University.
After Thursday's heptathlon events, Brennan sat in 13th place with 2,793 points. Her day one performance was a four-spot and 84-point improvement from last year's event. The Denison sophomore kicked off Friday's festivities with an 11th-place finish in the long jump with a mark of 16'8.50". She achieved that distance in both her first and third attempts. Brennan's performance moved her into 12th place in the overall standings (3,377) with two events to go.
The sophomore finished event number six, the javelin, in 12th place after recording a distance of 105'2" in her final throw of the afternoon. That performance earned her 516 points and bumped her up to 10th in the standings with just the 800-meter run remaining.
Heading into her best event of the heptathlon, Brennan knew she would need a strong performance to crack the top eight and earn another All-American award. The sophomore finished third in the event with a time of 2:19.37, which garnered 832 points. That total moved her into seventh in the overall standings with a score of 4,725 points.
"To be honest, I know the 800 is my best event, and I know it can make a huge difference," Brennan said. "In the past I've gone from 11th to seventh, so I kind of always depend on that, and I was pretty hopeful that would be enough.
"Obviously I didn't have the best second day," she continued, "but as usual with the combined events you just have to stay strong and keep going with it. You know, seeing seventh place is not a bad thing, and I was pretty happy about that."
Friday's performance marked Brennan's third-consecutive seventh-place finish at the national meet. The sophomore also became DU's first three-time All-American in women's track and field.
"I certainly could not be more proud," she said. "To me that's a huge honor. It's a nice feeling, and I'm very proud to represent Denison. I really appreciate this place for what they do for me."
Denison Head Coach Mark FitzPatrick also had a reason to smile for the second-consecutive day at the 2014 NCAA Outdoor Championship. The third-year coach has now coached his fifth All-American honoree in his short tenure at Denison.
"As a coach, you are always fortunate when you can have the opportunity to coach athletes that can compete at the upper level of Division III track and field," he said. "The best thing is that they are good people first and foremost, and dedicated student-athletes that are willing to do the work. It's a lot of fun and an honor to do so, and I enjoy it. It's exciting to see the success we've had in a short period of time."
Roughly 24 hours after earning a berth in the 200-meter dash finals, Denison senior sprinter Tiffany Davis (pictured right) returned to the George Gauthier Track to try and earn a spot in the finals of the 100-meter dash. Davis, who was seeded 21st out of 22 athletes, posted a time of 12.27 in the first of three heats. At the completion of the preliminaries, the Big Red senior landed in 20th overall. Davis will return to Selby Stadium on Saturday to compete in the finals of the 200 dash. That race is scheduled to begin at 4:25 p.m.
View NCAA Championship Photo Gallery (Day 2)
View Aedin Brennan's NCAA Interview
