Caroline DelVecchio Earns All-America Honors with Fifth Place Finish in Personal-Best Time

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Caroline DelVecchio finished in fifth place in the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships, earning All-America honors for the second year in a row for the Athenas with a new personal-best time of 1:00.39, on Saturday afternoon at St. John Fisher College.

DelVecchio finished in sixth place last year with a PR of 1:00.65, and moved up one spot on the podium by taking .26 off that time this season. Natalia Sawyer of Buffalo State came in first place with a 58.66, while Birgen Nelson of Gustavus Adolphus was the only other sub-60 in the race with a 59.17. 

DelVecchio actually edged out Ren Brown of Chicago by just four-thousandths of a second to take fifth place (1:00.383 to 1:00.387), with both finishing narrowly behind third-place Emma Lawrence of Wisconsin-La Crosse (1:00.21) and Eliza Bruncaj of the College of New Jersey (1:00.29). 

During the regular season, DelVecchio's top time was a 1:01.41, and she was able to top that in Thursday's prelims with a 1:00.87 to earn her way into the finals. She then trimmed another half-second off that time in her final race of her career, which was her fastest. 

After Brooke Simon came in third place in the pole vault yesterday, the two Athenas were both able to earn their way onto the All-America podium and provide points towards the CMS team total. The 10 points allowed the Athenas to finish tied for 21st in the team competition, even though they only competed in two events.