FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.—A season worthy of national recognition ended with Villanova graduate middle distance runner Lizzie Martell (Essex Junction, Vt.) making her career debut at the NCAA Championships on Friday evening. She ran in the semifinal heats of the 800 meters at Lance Harter Track at the Randal Tyson Track Center and went on to post a second team All-America finish as the 2026 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships got underway at the University of Arkansas.
 
Martell ran in the first of two semifinal heats and was in a section that featured a few of the favorites for the title entering the meet. It was a methodical race from the start and Martell posted a time of 2:07.65 after staying within striking distance of a qualifying spot in the final through most of the first 500 meters. The result is the first career All-America honor for Martell, who has had a record-breaking indoor season both individually and as part of the Wildcats distance medley relay team.
 
Exactly a month after a trip to Seattle during which Villanova had one of its best regular season weekends in several years, Martell toed the line against the top runners in the country on the biggest of stages. She qualified for the NCAA Championships by running 2:01.70 in the 800 meters at the Husky Classic on February 14. That mark set a new Wildcats indoor record and it was also an exact match for the split of 2:01.7 that Martell recorded one night earlier on the Seattle trip in the distance medley relay.
 
Villanova set a school record of 10:49.98 in the DMR on February 13, with Martell running the 800 meter leg in a lineup that included sophomore Bella Walsh (Wilmington, Del.), junior Olivia Allen (Kingwood, Texas) and junior Tilly O'Connor (Spring Lake, N.J.). The time was 2.5 seconds faster than the Wildcats 2011 national championship team had run and was nearly good enough to qualify this year's squad for this weekend's NCAA meet.
 
It was Martell individually who represented not only herself but whose success this season has been part of a team-wide step forward for the Villanova women, particularly the team's middle distance and distance groups. Martell, for one, has been on a tear from the very start of the season.
 
She posted a PR of 2:46.70 in the 1000 meters and ran a leg of the 4x400 meter relay at the season-opening Penn Opener on December 6. Following a semester and holiday break lasting more than a month, Martell ran the third-fastest 500 meters in school history (1:11.19) at the Quaker Invitational on January 17. A week later, she won the 800 meters in 2:03.58 at the Penn Elite and ran a personal best relay split of 55.53 on the 4x400 relay. Her only two races since the end of January were the two in Seattle on February 13-14.