Pray Earns All-America Status
May 27, 2017
GENEVA, Ohio - Westfield State University junior Sabrina Pray (Mansfield, Mass.) placed seventh in the nation in the women's 100-meter hurdles at the NCAA Division III track and field championships at the Spire Institute on Saturday afternoon.
By virtue of placing in the top eight in the nation, Pray will receive All-America status from the USTFCCCA.
Pray ran a school-record time for her third-straight race, with a time of 14.42 seconds.
"I'm a little bit shocked," said Pray. "My last thought before the start of the race was just that 'I love to hurdle.' I wanted to have a race that I would be proud to look back on."
Pray entered the meet as the 22nd seed. She ended the season ranked 23rd on the performance list and made it into the 22-athlete NCAA field when one of the runners ahead of her elected not to compete in the event at the championship meet.
"To come from 22nd seed, dead last, to finals is exciting," said Westfield State head coach Sean O'Brien. "To become an All-American is unbelievable."
Pray was competing at the NCAA championships for the first time.
She ran in lane nine in the championship race on the far outside. The race had an unusual feature, as typically nine athletes advance to finals, but a 10th athlete advanced after a protest yesterday, and the lone 10th runner ran a timed final heat by herself before Pray competed with the final nine athletes.
Pray had to finish in the top eight (or ahead of two other competitors) in order to earn All-American status.
"The runner in the first heat ran 14.46 and that made me a little worried, a little nauseous," said O'Brien.
Allison Smith of the University of the Redlands (Calif.) won the race and the national championship in 13.98.
"I was a little bit intimidated by the meet at first, it's very organized and very structured, and then I realized it's just a really big track meet," said Pray. "My goal was to make it to finals, and when I did that yesterday it was a relief, and then it was time to think about being an All-American or champion."
Pray has been at her best for the final few weeks of the season.
Pray lowered her school record time by another 1/10th of second today, after shaving .07 seconds off the mark yesterday, and running 14.58 at the ECAC Championships to qualify for the NCAA's.
"A lot of it is a mental process," said Pray. "Once I run a race, I keep replaying it in my head, and I feel like I fall asleep thinking about starts. Physically, I feel great, I haven't had any injuries at all this season."
"We've been waiting for Sabrina to break through," said O'Brien. "Usually there is a point when you get a sudden drop in your times, and it hadn't come, just a hundredth of a second here or there, but Sabrina stepped up at the championship point of the season. She wasn't intimidated by the other athletes at all and did a great job, like she has all season long."
Pray was the Owls lone competitor at the NCAA meet. The Owls finish the meet with two team points from Pray's finish in the hurdles.
Race results: http://results.deltatiming.com/ncaa/tf/2017-ncaa-d3-outdoor-championships/170525F015
Full NCAA Meet Results
Link to All-Americans: http://www.ustfccca.org/2017/05/featured/ncaa-division-iii-all-americans-for-2017-outdoor-tf-season
-- additional photos courtesy Mark Therrien, WPI sports info