Colorado track and field senior Micaela DeGenero captured the mile national title Saturday, storming from last to first in the final quarter-mile to close out the 2022 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships.
DeGenero fought with the 10-woman field throughout the first 1200-meters of the race but settled in the back to avoid the congestion. With 420 meters to go, DeGenero put on the burners and never looked back.
She took the lead before she even crossed the line with two laps remaining and built a 10-meter lead by the time she rounded the curve to the backstretch. No one was able to match her move as she closed the final 400 in 61 seconds.
With the title, DeGenero joins an illustrious group of NCAA mile indoor champions with the 2013 champion Emma Coburn and last year’s champion Sage Hurta.
This is the first time in NCAA history a school has won back-to-back NCAA women’s mile national titles with two different student-athletes. It is the second time a school has gone back-to-back since the first NCAA championship for the women in 1983, as Suzy Favor won her second and third NCAA mile national titles for Wisconsin in 1989 and 1990.
Earlier in the evening, Eduardo Herrera picked up his first NCAA Indoor First Team All-America honor after finishing fifth in the men’s 3,000-meter final in 8:00.58.
