EUGENE, Oregon — Angelina Napoleon entered famed Hayward Field last Saturday afternoon with a clear-cut goal: She wanted to reach the podium at the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Like most objectives she’s set for herself since beginning her varsity track career as a middle-schooler at Allegany-Limestone, Napoleon successfully checked that box. And as with many of those previous performances — from seventh grade through her sophomore season at North Carolina State University — she not only accomplished the goal, but she transcended herself along the way.

NAPOLEON recorded a head-turning time of 9:16.66 to take third place in the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase final at the NCAA Outdoor Track Championships on Saturday night at the University of Oregon. In doing so, she not only made the podium, but she shaved an incredible 11 seconds off her personal best to further extend her NC State program record and earned her first-career First Team All-America honor.

Napoleon was among three women who turned in an otherworldly effort in Oregon.

Alabama’s Doris Lemngole, the reigning steeplechase champion, as expected, made it back-to-back triumphs and eclipsed nine minutes by finishing in 8:58.15. The Kenyan shattered her own meet (9:15.24) and NCAA (9:10.13) records. Her time was also within three seconds of the bronze medal winner at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

BYU senior Lexy Halladay-Lowry claimed second with a personal best of 9:08.68.

And Napoleon, who’d edged Halladay-Lowry for second (behind Lemngole) in the steeplechase semifinals two nights earlier, captured third, blowing past the 9:27.85 she ran while winning the Atlantic Coast Conference championship one month earlier.

That showing might have been a high enough note on which to end the spring season.

But there was more to it than that.

NAPOLEON ALSO eclipsed the world standard time (9:18.00) needed to qualify for this year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan. “It’s the mark in the sand that means you are for real on the global stage,” one observer said afterward. Perhaps most impressively, her 9:16.66 is now the 13th fastest women’s time in American history.

Though she placed behind Halladay-Lowry, Napoleon finished ahead of two of her top competitors for the podium, West Virginia’s Sarah Tait (4th, 9:27.80) and Texas A&M’s Debora Cherono (5th, 9:32.10).

Soon, the 2023 Allegany-Limestone graduate will turn her attention to the 2025 USATF Outdoor Championships, which serve as the trials for the World Athletics Championships and are set for July 31-August 3 back at Hayward Field in Oregon. To qualify for the World Championships, athletes must finish within the top 2-3 in their event AND have met the world standard.

Napoleon, still only 20, has crossed that prerequisite off her list. She also now ranks No. 60 in the world in the 3000-meter steeplechase, per worldathletics.org, and No. 12 in the United States among all runners, collegiate and pro.

Behind Napoleon’s effort at NCAAs, NC State finished at No. 15 in the country in the USTFCCCA top 25 poll.