West Texas A&M’s Eleonora Curtabbi breaks NCAA DII 3,000M record

CANYON, Texas (KFDA) - The women’s NCAA Division II record for the 3,000M was 9:11.41 set by Celine Ritter from Lee University. This past Sunday at the Last Chance Qualifier at Boston University, West Texas A&M’s Eleonora Curtabbi shattered that record with a time of 9:08.10.

“I was expecting something like around 9:15, 9:12 maybe, but yeah, 9:08 is a big deal,” WT mid-distance runner and 3,000M record holder Eleonora Curtabbi said.

“She crossed the line, I saw 9:08 and I knew that was a huge PR (personal record) for her. Sure enough, I looked it up on my phone and yeah she got it by three seconds,” WT Cross County and Distance Coach Zach Daniel said.

To put that into perspective, the average time for the average person to run one mile is about 10 minutes. Doing the math, 3,000M is 1.86 miles. Curtabbi almost ran two miles faster than the average person can run one. This is something that she has been working towards day in and day out.

“I’m really proud of myself. Just because I have been through a lot of injuries in the last three, probably four years,” Curtabbi said.

To get to this point, Curtabbi has faced a lot of setbacks, but she did not let that stop her from achieving her goals.

“This summer I had two problems in my back and I didn’t know if I was going to get through the practice and be fine, but apparently I’m fine. I’m really happy that everything worked out, and I did the record,” Curtabbi said.

Curtabbi will compete next weekend in the NCAA DII indoor championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

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