Emily Bryson ’19 continued her outstanding season representing the Judges, placing this past weekend at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Indoor Track and Field National Championships.

At the championships, hosted by North Central College, Bryson earned a ninth-place finish in the mile run and a 14th-place one in the 3000-meter run. This was the second year in a row that Bryson went to the Indoor championships, improving upon last year’s performance.

In the 2016 championships, Bryson participated in the mile run, placing 12th with a time of 5:04.62. In this year’s edition, Bryson cut her time by more than seven seconds to run a mile of 4:57.02. Unfortunately, the sophomore missed out on claiming All-American honors by a mere four-tenths of a second.

The mile race was a battle throughout, as Bryson struggled to gain the upper hand. For most of the race she was in good position, staying in the fourth and fifth place spots. With a quarter of a mile to go, Bryson moved to the outside to make a final push, but was ultimately unable to pull ahead. She lagged behind from her position for most of the run, and fell behind to finish in ninth.

Bryson’s time in the mile was actually more than three seconds faster than her run in the preliminary round. The top spot in the mile run was claimed by Ohio Northern University junior Emily Richards, who finished the race with a time of 4:51.51. Bryson was the top finisher from the University Athletic Association conference, and was the second highest performing New England runner after Massachusetts Institute of Technology senior Maryann Gong, who earned a sixth-place finish.

Bryson had a second opportunity to earn All-American honors, this time in the 3000-meter run. She was given an advantageous position for the run, seeded seventh after the preliminary rounds. However, Bryson ended up falling to 14th overall. She finished the race with a time of 10:10.35, almost a full thirty seconds behind the champion, Ithaca College junior Taryn Cordani.

Bryson went into the event with hopes of improving upon her performance from past NCAA Championships. In addition to the 2016 Indoor Championships, in which Bryson fell short of an All-American finish in the mile run, the sophomore also competed in two previous NCAA Cross Country Championships.

In the 2015 Cross Country Championships, Bryson captured her first All-American honors with a 31st-place finish. She posted her collegiate best, at that juncture of her career, running the  course with a time of 21:44.50. Bryson became the first first-year to become an All-American in women’s cross country history at Brandeis.

Bryson improved upon her performance with an outstanding finish in the 2016 NCAA Cross Country Championships. This time, she ran the race in a time of 21:09.09 for an overall finish of 24th.  Bryson is the fifth woman in the program’s history to earn multiple All-American honors.

While the indoor track and field season has now come to a close, the team is quickly gearing up for the outdoor portion of the schedule. The squad will kick off action at Bridgewater State University on March 25 at the BSU Bears Invitational, followed by the Tufts University Snowflake Classic on April 1.