PITTSFORD, NY – Susan Bansbach qualified for the 400m finals with a seventh-place finish in the preliminaries, taking second in the first heat, to lead the way for the University of Rochester women's track & field on day two of the 2023 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by St. John Fisher University, on Friday at the Polisseni Track and Field Complex.
 
Bansbach finished 0.11 seconds shy of the leader, North Central's Lindsey Novak, in the opening heat, and earned seventh place to qualify for Saturday's 400m final, scheduled for 2:20 p.m.
 
Also in the 400m, Madeline O'Connell finished just shy of the qualifying mark, finishing fourth in the third and final heat with a season's-best 55.97, 0.01 seconds shy of eighth-place and the final qualifying spot for Saturday's final but improving upon the senior's seed by three spots, from 12th up to ninth. While in the second heat, Megan Bell scored 14th overall and fourth in the heat with a time of 56.41s.
 
Shortly after running the 400m, O'Connell also competed in the pole vault, bowing out at 3.65m.
 
Elsewhere on the day, Ashley Heffernan competed in the final three events of the heptathlon to wrap up the Syracuse, NY native's junior campaign. Heffernan's best finish of the day came in the 800m, clocking in at 2:26.42 in the final event of the heptathlon to finish 11th.
 
Heffernan opened the day finished tied for 16th in the long jump at 5.14m, and landed a 19.31m throw in the javelin to finish 20th.
 
Overall, Heffernan scored 4,385 points to finish 18th in the heptathlon, with Loras' Grace Alley taking home the heptathlon title with a score of 5,278.
 
The final day of the 2023 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships gets started on Saturday, May 27 at 10:00 a.m., with Bansbach getting the UR women's day started with the 400m finals at 2:20 p.m., before Rochester's reigning indoor national champion 4x400 relay team wraps up the championships with the women's 4x400 finals at 5:00 p.m.