Belden earns All-American honor at women's NCAA track & field championship
Jessie Belden finished the heptathlon in third place on Friday at the NCAA championship meet, earning her second All-American honor.
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05/22/09 – Jessie Belden's third place finish in the heptathlon at the 2009 NCAA Division III outdoor track & field championship earned the senior another All-American honor.
MARIETTA, Ohio – Haverford's Jessie Belden finished the two-day heptathlon event in third place at the 2009 NCAA Division III outdoor track and field championship, earning the senior All-American honors while setting both school and conference records in the seven-event competition with a final total of 4,800 points.
Entering day two after Thursday's four events, Belden sat in fourth place with 2,837 points.
Friday's opening event was the long jump where Belden posted the sixth best leap with a mark of 5.15 meters (16 feet, 10 3/4 inches). The outcome failed to change her overall placing heading into the final two events, the javelin throw and the 800 meter run.
Belden's toss of 32.81m (107-7) in the javelin was the seventh furthest of all the competitors at the meet and is now the fourth-best throw on Haverford's all-time javelin results list.
Though she didn't climb from her fourth place overall standing, Belden did creep within 19 points of second place and 15 points of third with just the 800 left on the program.
The two-lap race has proven to be a strong one for Belden who didn't disappoint posting a lifetime best time of 2 minutes, 19.35 seconds -- the fifth best on Haverford's all-time list -- which was the second fastest of all the athletes in the event trailing only Alli Alberts of Washington (Mo.) University. Alberts maintained her hold on second place but Belden passed Washington & Lee's Stacy Doornbos to move up to third place in the final overall standings.
Ashley Huston of Hardin-Simmons (Texas), the 2009 indoor pentathlon champion to Belden's runner-up, captured the outdoor title with an NCAA record 5,242 points. Alberts tallied 4,853 points while Doornbos ended up behind Belden in fourth place with 4,764 points.
This is Belden's second All-American honor following her top-two finish in the pentathlon at the indoor national championship. She will compete in one final individual event at the outdoor meet, the high jump, on Saturday afternoon. She broke both the school and conference records in the event, clearing a height of 1.67m (5-5 3/4), on day one of the heptathlon competition.