Plymouth, Massachusetts, senior All-American finishes third in section to auto qualify

Mission one for Borofski is complete by earning a spot in Saturday's one mile run final on day one of the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. (PHOTO BY Kamp Fender)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (March 9, 2017) – Stonehill College senior All-American Nicole Borofski (Plymouth, Massachusetts/Plymouth North) opened the 2017 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Birmingham CrossPlex by qualifying for Saturday's final for the women's one mile run. The Championships, hosted by the University of Alabama Huntsville and the Birmingham CrossPlex, are being held in conjunction with the 2017 NCAA Championships Festival this week.

Borofski earned one of the automatic qualifying spots with a third place finish in her section. Her time of 4:50.22 ranks ninth among the qualifiers in which the top three finishers in each of the two sections and the next three fastest times advance to the final on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. (EST). University of Minnesota Duluth junior Emilee Trost won the first section and posted the quickest qualifying time at 4:46.53, leading a section that placed six runners in Saturday's final. Western State University junior Alicja Konieczek won the second section in 4:48.53, followed by freshman Kayla Wooten from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs in 4:49.99 and then Borofski.

Borofski held in the top three for the majority of the race, leading the pack at several intervals, and never dipping lower than fourth. She did so with two and a half laps remaining, but quickly kicked back in towards the front in an attempt to secure one of the three automatic qualifying positions. Borofski was second after the first three laps and then took over the lead from the 600-meter lap through 1000-meters, clocking in at 3:01.81 after a 37.41-second split on the fifth lap. After dropping to fourth after 1200-meters, she kicked in with a 35.82-second split on the second to last lap and then finished the final 200-meters in 35.20.

Borofski will be right back on the track tomorrow night to run the one mile anchor leg for Stonehill's 4000-meter distance medley relay team that is seeded tenth for the final and starts at 6:55 p.m. (EST). She will be joined on the track by three first-time NCAA Indoor Championships participants in freshman Anna Lastra (Bridgton, Maine/Fryeburg Academy) for the opening 1200-meter leg, followed by sophomores Krista Fernandes (Taunton, Massachusetts/Coyle & Cassidy) for the 400-meter leg and Jillian Caiazzi (Marlborough, Massachusetts/Marlborough) for the 800-meter leg leading up to Borofski's anchor leg. Links to live results as well as a live video webcast are available via stonehillskyhawks.com.

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