EUGENE, Ore. – Northern Illinois University women's track and field's Ashley Tutt (Channahon, Ill./Minooka) concluded her remarkable season on Thursday evening (June 10) as she finished 22nd in the 10,000 meters at Hayward Field in the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. 

Tutt ran a time of 33:58.63, her third fastest time of the season. Oregon's Carmela Cardama Baez won the national championship in 32:16.13. With two seasons of outdoor track and field eligibility remaining, Tutt was one of just seven underclassmen competing in the 24-runner field. 

"The theme for the weekend (in Eugene) has seemed to be really fast races out of the gates," said NIU distance coach Adrian Myers. "Through the 6,000-meter mark, Ashley was probably about 20-25 seconds faster than our school record 6K cross country time, which is just blazing fast. At the end of the day, you can only go to the well so many times before the well comes up dry. 

"The number of races Ashley ran for the team this year, to win conference titles, to run on an injury through the fall to help us win the cross (country) championship. You are always taking from either the mental/emotional tank or the physical one and sometimes when one is a little dry you pull from the other, and vice versa. But at some point, the wells come up dry.

"She went for it, she battled, and even when she started to fall off, she still ran steady splits, which shows that she kept fighting."

With her 22nd place finish, Tutt recorded the fifth-highest placing in NIU history at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. 

Tutt concludes an outstanding season that included two Mid-American Conference team titles (Cross Country and Indoor Track), three NCAA Championships appearances (Cross Country, Indoor Track 5,000 meters and Outdoor Track 10,000 meters) and five MAC individual championships (Indoor Track Mile, 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters and Outdoor Track 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters). Tutt also earned Second Team All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 5,000 meters. 

"To be a championship team, you have to have championship individuals," said Myers. "That means in the classroom, out of the classroom, in leadership, in action. If you want to be a championship team you have to build it around people like Ashley. She is one of those people that selflessly puts it out there to show what can be done at this level. 

"Any team in sports always has those people at the forefront that provide leadership and walk into battle consistently for the team, and Ashley is that for us. That is why she has been able to accomplish what she has done and why our team has elevated to where it is."