DEKALB, Ill. – Ashley Tutt (Channahon, Ill./Minooka) of the Northern Illinois University women's track and field team will conclude her historic 2020-21 season on Thursday night, June 10, when she competes in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore. 

The 10,000 is scheduled for 8:08 p.m. CT and will be televised live on ESPN2. 

"I'm definitely really excited," said Tutt. "This is something that I have been working toward for as long as I can remember. I'm excited to represent our program, I know what I have to do, and I'm calm and collected getting ready for race day."

The NCAA Championships have returned to Oregon's Hayward Field this year for the first time since 2018. The newly renovated facility is hosting its 17th NCAA Championship and will host the U.S. Olympic Trials later this summer as well as the 2022 World Athletics Championship.  

"Something about walking into the facility (at Hayward Field) gives you goosebumps," said said NIU distance coach Adrian Myers. "You feel the electricity in the building because you are on a track that Olympians and World Champions compete on. To understand the magnitude of what you are doing, and where you are doing it, is very special. I know this has been a dream of Ashley's to compete at Hayward Field and to do it at the 'new one' in the first national championship (since its renovation), she is ready to spill her heart out on the Hayward track to reach her goals."

Thursday's event will be the culmination of a remarkable season for Tutt, who has won five individual Mid-American Conference championships, two MAC team titles and competed in all three NCAA Championships (Cross Country, Indoor Track and Field and Outdoor Track and Field). 

"Competing in every national championship during the year is very difficult to do, especially after being limited by injury in the fall," said Myers. "To compete at a high level for that many weeks, that many months, it is a credit to how special Ashley is mentally, emotionally and physically. It is also a credit to her ambition and goals in the sport. It is undeniably a special achievement for our program, for her and for her career moving forward."

Tutt advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships with an 11th place finish at the NCAA Preliminary in College Station, Texas (May 27), where she ran a time of 33:52.20. 

Earlier this season, the Channahon, Ill., native set a new school record in the 10,000, running a time of 33:24.96 at the Virginia Challenge (April 16). Tutt went on to win the 10,000 meters at the MAC Championships with a time of 34:39.86 (May 7), she also won the 5,000 meters at the conference meet. 

Tutt opened her 2020-21 season with a second-place finish at the MAC Cross Country Championships, helping the Huskies claim the first conference title in program history. That performance helped her book a spot in the NCAA Cross Country Championships where she finished 80th, the second-best finish by a NIU runner in school history. 

During the indoor track and field season, Tutt claimed individual MAC crowns in the mile, 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters and was named Most Outstanding Track Performer while helping NIU win its first indoor track team title. She qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 5,000 meters and earned Second Team All-America honors with a 13th place finish. 

"It is definitely something that is hard to fathom sometimes," Tutt said of her 2020-21 season. "We have been working for the team title for so long, getting that cross (country) title was amazing, the icing on the cake was the indoor track title, those were the big highlights, getting those done for the team because we have been so close each year. Coach Myers told us when we were recruited that we would win a MAC title, so it finally get it was really special." 

Tutt's appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships marks the fourth consecutive time a Huskie has qualified for the meet. Hope Schmelzle competed in the steeplechase in 2017, finishing sixth, while Jehvania Whyte participated in the triple jump in both 2018, finishing seventh, and 2019, finishing 20th.