In a race on the national stage, Bluffton High School track standout Hannah Chappell-Dick, running for Eastern Mennonite University, had a strong finish to grab the silver medal in the mile at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field National Championships.
Chappell-Dick completes an incredible indoor season with the race, earning All-American honors for the first time in her career.
Chappell-Dick led the pack in the early stages of the race, only to be passed by a pair of runners with a lap to go. Coming around the final curve, the junior made a move on the outside to slip back ahead of one of the women, earning her second-place finish.
She was just 0.64 behind the gold medalist, senior Alison Maxwell of Middlebury. Chappell-Dick's time was also a mere 0.44 off her ODAC record time of 4:56.37, which was run on Feb. 21 on the same JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C.
After Friday's preliminaries, EMU's miler had the top time of the 17 participants, clocking at 5:01.22.
During the indoor season, Chappell-Dick broke four EMU records (800m, 1000m, mile and distance medley relay) and also took down the ODAC record for the mile. She won three events at the ODAC Championships (800m, mile and DMR) and earlier this week was named the South/Southeast Region Athlete of the Year.
