Wyatt wraps up season with 19th-place national finish in 800-meter run

GENEVA, Ohio – Junior Isabel Wyatt concluded her standout season for the St. Olaf College women’s track and field team with a 19th-place finish in the 800-meter run at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday afternoon at the SPIRE Institute.

In her first appearance at the outdoor national meet, Wyatt finished seventh in heat one and 19th overall with a time of 2:16.53. The junior entered the meet as the No. 16 seed in the event with her school-record time of 2:09.44 from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Wyatt’s seventh-place finish in the first of the three heats left her with no chance to advance to Saturday’s final, as the top-two finishers in each heat plus the next three fastest times moved on. The junior was St. Olaf’s first outdoor national qualifier in the event since Andrea Gelle ’07 in 2007.

The showing brought an end to a decorated junior season for Wyatt, who was a Second Team All-American in the indoor 800-meter run after placing ninth in the country earlier this year. She was also the MIAC outdoor champion in the 800-meter run both indoors and outdoors and was named the MIAC Women’s Indoor Co-Track Athlete of the Year after adding a conference title in the 1,000-meter run. Between the indoor and outdoor seasons this year, Wyatt broke four school records and one MIAC record.

At the conclusion of the 800-meter run, St. Olaf sat in a tie for 34th in the team standings with two points from senior Alison Bode’s seventh-place performance in the 10,000-meter run on Thursday.