LA CROSSE, Wis. - Elle Marsyla trailed by almost 4.5 seconds with only one lap to go, but came all the way back over the final 400 meters to win the national championship in the 10000 meters on the first day of the NCAA Division III Championships on Thursday. 

Marsyla finished in 33:38.71 for a new personal best, a new CMS record, and the No. 6 time in NCAA Division III history. Even with the fast pace, she appeared destined for a runner-up finish, but she had a 70-second final lap (1:10.84) to overtake Ainara Sainz De Rozas of Concordia (Wis.) with just 20 meters to go, her first lead of the race which carried her over the finish line. 

De Rozas went into first early on and led for pretty much the entire race, with Marsyla right on her heels for most of it. The front pack began with 11 runners, then was cut to six by the midway point. The pack of six was thinned to three shortly after, and then De Rozas and Marsyla pulled away from Claire Anderson, the eventual third-place finisher, making it a two-person battle. 

Marsyla was one second behind De Rozas on virtually every split, but with four laps to go, De Rozas started to get separation. She led by 4.39 seconds when they hit the bell lap, and Marsyla appeared to be fading.

With a half a lap to go, down by around 30 meters and De Rozas seemingly cruising in on a victory lap, Marsyla kicked into her finishing gear. She ended up running a blistering 1:10.84 over the final 400 meters, with De Rozas running exactly five seconds slower with a 1:15.84. That five-second difference was enough for Marsyla to take the lead with 30 meters to go, and she ended up holding the lead for five seconds of the entire 33-minute race, but they were the final five seconds. 

With the 10000 meter national championship under her belt, Marsyla will try to make it a double when she runs in the 5000 meters on Saturday, with a chance to make CMS history. No track and field athlete (men or women) has ever won two national titles in the same year. 

In addition to Marsyla's run, Riley Capuano also had a strong performance in the 1500 meters to make it through to Saturday's final. Hope Dragseth finished 11th in the 10000 meters to earn second-team All-America honors, while Madeline Seifert finished 17th in the pole vault after qualifying due to her PR at the Redlands Final Qualifier, which put her above the NCAA cutline for the first time in her career. 

Day two of the track and field championships tomorrow will feature Josephine Jett in the prelims of the 100 meters and the 100-meter hurdles. Saturday will see Marsyla run again as the top-seeded entrant in the 5000 meters, Capuano compete in the 1500 finals as the No. 3 seed, and Sophia Laudi throw the javelin, where she is also seeded third.