Senior Lucy Van Dalen, who has already accumulated many honors for herself and Seawolves’ running as a whole, added a new accolade to Stony Brook Athletics’  list of honors:  individual national title.

“Lucy stuck to the game plan as well as you can,” head coach Andy Ronan said. “She was mentally and physically in the right place and willed herself to the finish line. Our progam has shown that we can compete nationally in cross country and now in track.”

Van Dalen, the winner of an America East Title in 2010 and recipient of All-America honors in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track last year, added this new achievement on Saturday at the 2012 NCAA Indoor Track Championships at Boise State University in Idaho.

The veteran runner from Wanganui, New Zealand, ran in and won the mile event.
Her final time was 4:39.76, a hair in front of Aisha Praught of Illinois State, who ran a time of 4:39.85. Van Dalen’s time is a record for Boise State’s running facility.

There would not be a long time to rest for Van Dalen, however, as  she ran in the 3,000m event less than two hours later. She finished 10th in the event with a time of 9:20.27.

“The goal was to win the mile,” Ronan said. “Everything else after that was a bonus.”
At the end of the day, Van Dalen’s efforts won her All-America first team honors in the mile and second team honors for the 3,000m.

Now Van Dalen and Ronan can look forward to the beginning of the outdoor track and field season, which begins at the Monmouth Season Opener at West Long Branch, N.J., on March 23 and will continue into the next day.