Schudrowitz Goes Out In Style as NCAA 800-Meter Run National Champion

From Sports Information Director, May 26, 2012 | Women's Track & Field
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

CLAREMONT, Calif. - St. Norbert College senior Emily Schudrowitz capped her stellar career by accomplishing the biggest of dreams - winning her last collegiate race.

Schudrowitz's claimed the championship of the 800-meter run in thrilling style, using a late charge to claim her second national title at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges' Burns Track Complex.

Schudrowitz clipped Coe College's Keelie Finnel at the tape. Schudrowitz, who won the 2010 NCAA indoor title in the 800, ran a time of 2:07.44 to edge Finnel's 2:07.50. It was a finish so close St. Norbert coach Don Augustine had to wait for the finish to show on the results board to determine the winner.

"Emily led for the first 600 meters but then got swallowed up by about four girls," Augustine said. "With about 120 to go she started to come back. (Finnel) wasn't going any faster and Emily kept coming and got her at the line.

"After winning indoors in 2010 she's carried around the pressure of repeating for 2 1/2 years. After this year's national indoors she was upset. She wanted that storybook ending and she got it."

For the highly decorated Schudrowitz - a 10-time NCAA qualifier and 18-time Midwest Conference champion - it was satisfying finish to an accomplished career.

"I did everything I could physically and mentally to put myself in this position," Schudrowitz said. "I've been visualizing ending my career at the top of the awards podium for three months, and I wasn't going to accept anything less."

Schudrowitz joins Laura Salm and Ashley Graybill as two-time St. Norbert national champions. Salm won the indoor high jump in 1991 and 1993, while Graybill won the 2009 indoor and outdoor 800-meter runs.