MYRTLE BEACH, SC – The University of Rochester women's track and field team secured a pair of top-4 results and completed the best season ever in team history on Saturday, competing at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium.
 
The UR 4x400 meter relay team of seniors Madeline O'Connell and Kate Isaac, first-year Nora Chen and junior Megan Bell closed out the day with a third place result in the final event of the competition. Earlier in the day Bell also competed in the 800 meter finals and ran to a school record time and fourth place finish.
 
As a team, Rochester used points from Saturday's action, along with five from O'Connell's fourth place pole vault result on Thursday to secure 16 total points in the meet. That total put the Yellowjackets in a tie for 11th among 83 teams that scored a point over the three day meet. UR's team finish is the best ever at the outdoor national championships, eclipsing the previous-best 12th place team finish set back in 1986.
 
Rochester's relay squad was locked in a tight battle throughout its race on Saturday, with O'Connell leading off the race. After holding the lead for most of her leg, UR ended the opening 400 meters in second place to MIT. O'Connell handed off to Isaac who held a brief lead on the second leg before ultimately finishing off her leg also in second, just fractions of second behind MIT.
 

The second handoff was from Isaac to Chen who saw Williams College take the lead, with MIT dropping back a spot to third. During the anchor leg, Bell received the baton and was in close with a slew of teams, taking a lead on the backstretch and through the final turn.
 
But a strong final kick from eventual champion Washington-St. Louis, and a resurgent MIT team sprinted past during the final stretch to put the Yellowjackets in third overall with a time of 3:45.40. UR ended less than a second off the winning pace of WashU.
 
The relay squad continues a strong run of success in that event both at the indoor and outdoor Division III nationals. Rochester was runner-up outdoors last year and has finished in the top-6 four times in a row including 2024. During the indoor campaign this March, the 'Jackets won their second straight NCAA Division III title and have placed in the top-5 three straight seasons.
 
Earlier in the day, in the finals of the 800 meters, Bell clocked in with a time of 2:09.03, breaking her own school record in the process. Bell's previous personal-best time was her NCAA qualifying time of 2:09.56 set a month ago at the Rochester Spring Twilight.
 
She entered the week as the 11th seed in the 22-runner field, and qualified for the finals by winning her heat and posting a time of 2:11.09 in the Friday evening preliminaries.
 
In Bell's first final on Saturday, the junior was among the top-3 throughout most of the two laps, sitting a close third after the opening 400 meters running a 1:02.52 split. Rounding the final turn, Bell was neck-and-neck with eventual runner-up Danielle Schultz of WashU, but a late kick from behind by Goucher's Tanise Thronton-Fillyaw dropped Bell one spot further back.
 
Bell's finish in the 800 meters is a new record result at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships by a Yellowjacket women's track and field runner in that event. The previous best was Katherine O'Brien's fifth place finish at nationals back in the 2004 outdoor season.
 
The fourth place trophy also earns Bell All-America honors for the second time as an individual in the 800 meters this track and field season, as she also ended the indoor season in the top-8, placing sixth at NCAA's.