At NCAA Division III Indoor championships in March, Rochester Institute of Technology (N.Y.) sprinter Sadie Schreiner missed qualifying for the national championship final at 200 meters by .006 of a second.
In this outdoor season, including her effort at last weekend’s Liberty League Championships, the sophomore speedster, a trans woman, has sent a message that she’s leaving nothing to chance.
Schreiner won two conference titles, set a championship record, lowered two school records and helped RIT finish third in the overall team standings. She also put herself in the national conversation in NCAA Division III with the national championships set to begin May 23 at Myrtle Beach, S.C.
She opened a championship Saturday by showing her strength in the 400 meters. In the last half of the race she powered from fourth to first down the last straightaway, holding off University of Rochester’s Madeline O’Connell to win in a championship meet record and RIT record 55.07 seconds.
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She followed up the 400-meter win with another title in the 200 meters, in 24.14 seconds. Schreiner made up the stagger within the first 50 meters and charged to a resounding win with O’Connell chasing in second place.
Her times in both races put her near the front of the season performance charts and in position to spot in the national finals. Her 400-meter time Saturday is the second fastest mark in NCAA Division III this season and sandwiched between two defending Division III national champs. Defending 800 meter champion Emma Kelley of Washington University (Mo.) has the season’s best at 400 meters so far at 54.18, and defending 400 meter national champion Mount Union, Ohio’s Kenadee Wayt is just behind Schreiner in third at 55.08.
Reaching the final would make Schreiner the first publicly out transgender student-athlete Outsports knows of to achieve NCAA All-American status since Lia Thomas and Iszac Henig in swimming in 2022. A national championship effort would make her first out transgender student-athlete to win an individual national title in the same time frame, and would be the first in her sport since CeCé Telfer’s Division II championship in the 400 meter hurdles in 2019.
This bid also races against time. Due to the coming changes in NCAA regulations, eligibility for collegiate competition would be determined by regulations of the world governing body for the sport. World Athletics, the governing body for track and field, banned transgender women from competition last year which would make Schreiner ineligible to compete in 2024-2025.
