AMHERST, N.Y. - Daemen College track and field standout Mackenzie Donahue (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) has earned an invitation to compete in the 5,000-meter run at the 2017 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field National Championship meet which will be held from March 9-11 at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Alabama.
 
Donahue, a senior long distance runner, earned the invitation based on her best time in the event this season which came at last week's East Coast Conference Championship meet.  There, Donahue won the race for the second consecutive season with a time of 17:00.75, shaving some 30 seconds off the meet record she set in 2016, and 15 seconds off the team record time she had also set last season. 
 
Donahue's top 5,000-meter time surpassed the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 17:28.4, and it presently ranks as the 15th fastest time of any female Division II athlete in the country this season. 
 
By earning the invitation, Donahue will become the first Daemen track and field athlete to compete in a national championship event at the Division II level.  She is no stranger to this type of accomplishment.  In 2015, she became the first Daemen athlete in any sport to compete in a Division II national championship event when she qualified in the sport of cross country.
 
The announcement this afternoon marks the second newsworthy day in a row for Donahue who was announced yesterday as an All-East Region honoree in the 1-mile, 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter runs by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

The 2017 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field National Championship meet occurs over three days next week.  The 5,000-meter race is slated to go off at 7:05 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) on Thursday, March 9.  Live timing of the event will be available, and a live stream will also be shown on NCAA.com.

Stay tuned to daemenwildcats.com for more information in the days leading up to Donahue's national championship appearance.