AMHERST, N.Y. - Mackenzie Donahue (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora), a long distance runner on the Daemen College women's indoor track and field team, has been named the East Coast Conference Track Athlete of the Week for competitions held February 1-7.  The announcement came via the league's weekly indoor track and field report released this afternoon from conference headquarters in Central Islip, N.Y.

Donahue won the 5,000-meter run with a dominant effort at last weekend's SPIRE Indoor Track and Field Challenge held at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.  She completed the race in 17:15.05, shaving 30 seconds off her seed time and establishing a new team record in the process.

Perhaps most importantly, Donahue also eclipsed the provisional qualifying time (17:28.78) for the NCAA Division II National Championships, and is now ranked 12th nationally in the 5,000-meter run.  The performance puts Donahue in position for a potential invitation to the national championship meet which will be held March 11-12 in Pittsburg, Kansas; runners with the top 16 recorded times across NCAA Division II schools will be selected to participate.  Last fall, Donahue became the first Daemen athlete in any sport to qualify and compete in a national championship event at the NCAA Division II level, doing so in cross country.

The announcement today makes Donahue the first-ever Daemen indoor track and field athlete to be selected as the ECC's Track Athlete of the Week.

Donahue and her teammates will return to action this weekend (Saturday, February 13) at the Colgate Class of '32 Invitational.