Senior Dilys Osei became just the third-ever outdoor national champion in Emory University women's track and field history on Saturday as the 2019 NCAA Division III Championships came to a close in Geneva, Ohio.
Osei captured the first outdoor national championship for the Eagles since 2002 and just the second track national title in program history in dramatic fashion in the 400m Hurdles, erasing a sizeable deficit to Loras' Bella Solis with an incredible home stretch with Osei just passing Solis at the finish line to win the title by .04 seconds. Osei's event winning time of 58.98 was the second fastest winning time ever and is the third fastest time recorded in Division III history. In addition, her time is the first sub-1:00 mark in the event in team history.
Fast-forward to the 2:51.45 mark to see Osei's championship-winning performance:
Earlier in the afternoon, the 4x100m relay of Osei, senior Dani Bland, freshman Hannah Lansberry and sophomore Rebekah Bondi nearly captured a national title of their as they finished third with a school-record time of 46.37 as the race came down to a photo finish. Bondi held the lead for the majority of the final leg before being overtaken by Loras and Rhode Island College over the final 15 meters of the race. Loras took home the crown with the winning time 46.30 with RIC taking silver at 46.33. The third place finish marks the second-best finish for the Eagles in the history of the event.
Bland added individual All-America honors for the Eagles as she posted her second consecutive national runner-up performance in the 100m Dash with a time of 11.702. She hung with eventual champion Gabriel Noland of Loras for the majority of the 100m before Noland excelled towards the finish line with a burst of closing speed over the final 20 meters of the race. Bland added a ninth place finish just over an hour later in the 200m Dash as she crossed with a finals time of 24.99. The two All-America finishes gives Bland a combined total of 12 All-America honors in her stellar career, the most by an Emory student-athlete, man or woman, in track and field history.
Osei, Lansberry, senior Ariana Newhouse and sophomore Michelle Rosenblum rounded out the successful afternoon for the Eagles as the quartet earned the team's third podium finish in the event of the last four years, finishing in eighth place with a time of 3:49.79.
Emory as a team came in seventh overall with 29 points as the Eagles recorded five All-America honors, three school records and one national championship. The seventh place showing is the team's second straight top-10 finish at the outdoor national meet.
