BOSTON, Mass.—The indoor track & field season got off to a strong start for senior distance runner
Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) as she recorded the eighth-fastest indoor 5000 meters in school history at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Saturday afternoon. Sigfstead was clocked in 15:52.27 in the fast heat of the women's 5K at the Track & Tennis Center in Boston.
In recent years, early season indoor meets such as this one in Boston have become an opportunity for distance runners who are still in shape from cross country season to get a fast time on the track before taking a pause before the bulk of the indoor season to come in January and beyond. Saturday's race was just that for Sigfstead, an All-American in cross country at the NCAA Championships last month and who ran some of her best collegiate races to date this Fall.
Sigfstead opened her indoor season with the second-fastest 5K of her career. She now owns three of the 11 fastest indoor 5K races in Villanova history, including Saturday's mark of 15:52.27 which will come in at No. 8 on the Wildcats all-time indoor performance list. Sigfstead also holds the No. 3 (15:44.11) and No. 11 (15:59.18) times which were both recorded in February of this year in Seattle and at the BIG EAST Championships in Chicago.
It has been an impressive calendar year from start to finish from Sigfstead, who was the BIG EAST indoor champion in the 5000 meters in February, earned All-America honors in the 10K outdoors and made national waves early in September when she was the individual champion of the prestigious Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. Sigfstead went on to garner her All-BIG EAST and Mid-Atlantic All-Region honors on the way to registering a career best 15
th place individual finish at the NCAA Championships.
The leader of the Villanova distance group currently ranks fourth in school history in the 5000 meters and second in the 10000 meters. Sigfstead and the rest of the Wildcats will not compete again until after the new year. The team returns to action for the Quaker Invitational at Penn on January 17-18.
