RESULTS

GENEVA, OHIO – It took just one event for the No. 4 Ithaca College women's track & field team to secure a national title at the 2017 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships in Geneva, Ohio, as junior Taryn Cordani won the 10,000-meter race in a time of 34:41.11. It is the third straight national champion for Cordani, as she claimed top honors in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter races during the indoor season.

In rainy conditions at SPIRE Institute, Cordani, who was seeded first in the event, sat in third place over the opening mile of the race. She then made her move to the front of a four-runner pack (Cordani, Amy Regan of Stevens, Felecia Koerner of Johns Hopkins and Audrey Miller of Loras) at the 6:40 mark and maintained that lead up until lap 16 (12:50).

By the 20:13 mark of the race, Cordani and the other three runners began to lap the remainder of the field, which forced the runners to weave in-and-out of Lane 1. Just 42 seconds later, Cordani dropped by back to third in the lead pack, but moved back up to second at 22 minutes.

Cordani held steady in second for the next four minutes, until she made her move back to the front at 26:17 (Lap 19). With five laps to go (28:35), Cordani and Regan – a six-time national champion and the defending 10K runner by 20 seconds – began to pull away from the other two runners in the lead pack.

Cordani and Regan stayed close to each other over the final mile, but with two laps to go, Cordani began to separate herself and made her final kick to the finish line. She led Regan by nearly three seconds heading to the final lap, but turned it on and ran her fastest lap of the race at 1:14.597 over the final 400 meters.

Her time of 34:41.11 is the fifth-fastest time in the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships dating back to 1982, and the fastest performance since 2005. The only times better than Cordani's were 33:50.32 (1983), 34:36.60 (1984), 34:08.59 (2003) and 34:00.43 (2005).

She now raises Ithaca's all-time total of individual national championships to 38, and is the third Bomber all-time, in any sport, to win three career national titles.

The Douglas, Mass. native will run again on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the 5,000-meter run. Cordani clocked the third-fastest time in the nation at 16:35.71.