Esvelt finishes seventh at NCAAs

Fifth-year Falcon collects national honors

Uriah Aguon, Sports Editor

March 17, 2025

Fifth-year Annika Esvelt (5, second from left) runs with the leaders in the NCAA women’s 3000 on Saturday, March 15, in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Courtesy of SPU Athletics)

What’s new?

She ran her best and completed a stellar final indoor season.

Fifth-year Annika Esvelt competed in the NCAA Division II Indoor Championship in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Thursday, March 13, and Friday, March 14.

Esvelt returned to the national meet after collecting a 10th-place finish at the 2024 Indoor NCAAs in the women’s 5000-meter event.

Finishing seventh in the 5000 at 16:20.55 on Thursday, she not only improved by three placings but also set a new personal best after the 16:29.98 she ran at last year’s championship.

This was Esvelt’s first time running the women’s 3000-meter event at the national meet. She is a three-time Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion in the 3000, having won the race at the 2022, 2024 and 2025 GNAC Indoor Championships.

She finished seventh on Saturday at 9:28.94, securing another All-American award.

What got her here:

Esvelt entered the championships as the No. 4 seed in the 5000 and No. 9 in the 3000.

Her qualifying time for the 5000 this season was 16:09.93 at the Boston University Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Dec. 7, 2024.

She qualified for the 3000 at the 2025 UW Invite on Jan. 31 with a time of 9:24.80.

All-American awards:

Esvelt now has nine career All-American awards, including four for indoor track, four for outdoor track and one for cross country. She is the 11th woman in GNAC history and the first since 2020 to make All-American in the 3000.

Her first All-American finishes were in the 2022 indoor and outdoor seasons. In her Indoor NCAA debut, Esvelt placed eighth in the 5000 at 16:31.12. At the following Outdoor NCAAs, Esvelt took fourth place in the 10,000-meter event at 33:51.65 and 10th in the 500 at 16:40.70.

Esvelt returned to the NCAA podium in 2024, claiming the fourth-place spot in the six-kilometer run at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship with a career-best 20:34.5.

In the following Indoor NCAAs, she placed 10th in the 5000 at 16:29.98. Esvelt won two All-American placings at the 2024 Outdoor NCAAs: second in the 10,000 at 34:18.07 and seventh in the 5000 at 16:54.06.

Donate to The Falcon

$2400

$2000

Contributed

Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of The Falcon. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

About the Contributor

Uriah Aguon, Sports Editor

Uriah is a Senior English: Creative Writing major. He has been with the Falcon since his freshman year, starting as a features writer, and is now the sports editor. Uriah hopes to remain on the Falcon staff throughout his time at SPU and continue writing in journalism following graduation.