MARION, Ind. - William Woods University freshman Anna Hart placed 17th out of 20, clocking a 31-minute and 20.86-second time in the women's 5,000-meter race walk final in the 44th Annual NAIA Women's Outdoor Track & Field National Championships Thursday at Wildcat Stadium.

"It was such a fun experience and pretty surreal being a freshman and never having many opportunities to compete at the highest level," Hart said.

For Hart, it was her third time competing in the 5k race walk, three months after she started learning and training for the event. Unlike her first two race walks, Hart did it in front of a large crowd, a whole field of the NAIA's best competitors and several other firsts.

"I was a little nervous but super excited to work off of other athletes," Hart said. "Unfortunately, this was the first time I had hardcore judges looking at my every move, so that was a little nerve-wrecking and scary for me. Fortunately, my finishing time and performance has only motivated me to come back next year more prepared and ready to kick some butt." 

Hart finished a record-breaking outdoor track and field nationals for Woods as she joined Hailey Gerard and Mekayla Gibson as the Owls' trio of women's track athlete qualifiers - the most in school history. All three placed 17th in their events, Gerard in the 1,500-meter run and Gibson in the 10k run.

"I feel very honored and thankful to be part of Woods's record-breaking trio because we have all worked so incredibly hard to achieve what we have," Hart said. "And it's awesome because this trio has so much more left to give. This wasn't the ending I was looking for, but I am trying to keep my head up and learn from this experience!"

William Woods looks forward to making a complete transition to the Heart of America Athletic Conference next school year, which has a 5k race walk at its conference meet.