JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Make that two tickets to Eugene for Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) who ran one of the best races of her career on Saturday night and became the first Villanova athlete in six years to qualify for the outdoor NCAA Championships in two events. Sigfstead advanced on time out of her national semifinal heat in the 5000 meters with the fourth-fastest time in school history, running 15:33.68 on the final night of competition at the NCAA East Preliminary at Visit Jax Track at Hodges Stadium. The time lowered Sigfstead's lifetime PR in the 5K by more than 10 seconds.
 
The outdoor track & field vernacular of 'punching a ticket' to the NCAA Championships has caught on more and more in recent years, so much so that at the NCAA preliminary meets in the East and West regions it is a highly anticipated site to see athletes posing with oversized tickets that colloquially represent their spots at the national meet. Sigfstead had two such photo opportunities this week, first on Thursday night when she earned a return trip to the NCAA Championships in the 10000 meters and once again on Saturday after her thrilling 5K semifinal.
 
It took a sensational performance for Sigfstead to emerge as one of the 12 qualifiers for nationals in the 5K. Her finishing time of 15:33.68 is the second-fastest in Villanova history to be run during the outdoor collegiate season. It is the No. 4 absolute time in the Wildcats record book regardless of season and moves Sigfstead into third place on the program's all-time performance list. Her now defunct PR had been 15:44.11 indoors on February 9, 2024, while her previous outdoor PR was her seed time of 15:55.00 from a race in Virginia last month.
 
The top five finishers in each of five heats and the next two fastest times advanced from Saturday's night's national semifinal round. A tactical opening heat in which there was a gap of more than 13 seconds between the fifth and sixth place finishers left a tantalizing opportunity for the 24 runners in the second heat. Sigfstead was a beneficiary, and a deserving one at that after she ran her 10K semifinal race on Thursday night in 32:56.98 to finish 10^th and punch her first ticket to Oregon.
 
A small move before the pack of runners had even begun to shake out early in the race was a key one for Sigfstead, who was in the middle of a crowd after 600 meters but had the fastest split in the field (1:12.08) on the second full lap around the oval. She moved up nine spots according to official splits after the race and had put herself into seventh place after the first kilometer. It was around the midpoint of the race that a pack of eight runners broke away to form a lead pack that would define the rest of the race.
 
Grace Hartman from North Carolina State took a sizable lead with a mile to go and was followed by six runners behind her. This heat of the 5K was already proving to be faster than the first one, with all signs pointing to the top seven runners advancing out of the second race. Sigfstead stayed within striking distance of a top five finish and an automatic qualifying spot until the final lap, but by the time she heard the bell for the last 400 meters she had also built a sizable lead over the eighth place runner and the rest of the chase pack behind her.
 
The two on-time qualifiers for the NCAA Championships not only came from the second heat, but sixth place finisher Rachel Forsyth of Michigan State and Sigfstead were each more than 13 seconds faster than the sixth place finisher in the first heat. Sigfstead's proverbial ticket was punched as soon as she crossed the finish line.
 
From there it was on to the NCAA Championships backdrop just outside the oval with the Villanova coaching and creative staffs in tow for Sigfstead's second obligatory photo-op of the week. She is now linked with former Wildcats distance runner Caroline Alcorta who qualified for the NCAA Championships in both the 10K and the 5K in 2019. She is also the last Villanova runner to be a first team All-American (top eight finish) in the women's 10000 meters, a feat well within reach for Sigfstead after she placed 12^th last year.
 
The 2025 NCAA Championships take place June 11-14 in Eugene, Ore. at famed Hayward Field in the heart of the University of Oregon campus. Villanova will have at least one athlete in competition all four days of the meet, including Sigfstead in the national championship races of the 10K on Thursday, June 12 and the 5K on Saturday, June 14. The latter race will be the Wildcats final event of the 2024-25 athletics seasons.