Rodenfels Places 4th in Raleigh Relays 5,000m

ASICS Greenville Track Club-ELITE's Annie Rodenfels ran 15:46.7 to place fourth in the women's 5,000 meters at the Raleigh Relays, conducted Friday at North Carolina State University. On a warm, late March evening Rodenfels was targeting a new personal best as the deep field of women athletes started the fifth and final heat of the evening's 5,000s at 9:00 pm. However, after passing the first 800 meters slightly slower than her desired pace, Annie took the lead and passed the first kilometer in 3:08.89. She continued to lead through halfway (2500m), but relinquished it soon after to Providence College's Abby Wheeler. Wheeler led through 3,000m (9:28.7) with Rodenfels less than a second back in fourth position. By 3800m, Georgia Tech's All American Nicole Fegans was in front, followed by Notre Dame's Katie Wasserman, Wheeler and Rodenfels, all less than one second behind. 

The pace quickened over the final kilometer and the race came down to a ferocious final 400 as Wasserman closed the final lap in an impressive 64.75 to finish in a new meet record of 15:33.35, breaking Furman's Allie Buchalski's 2017 mark of 15:35.55. Fegans ran a personal best of 15:37.16 for second and NC State's Savannah Shaw ran 15:40.37 for third. Rodenfels had been passed by a couple of runners and was in sixth with 400m remaining, but rallied with a 71.6 final lap to place fourth. Wheeler placed fifth in 15:46.87 in what was the Raleigh Relays deepest field in the event's history as eleven of the 88 finishers (5 heats) broke 16:00 minutes. 

Rodenfels was disappointed in not being able to better her personal best of 15:35.18, but her 15:46.7 was her second best time over the 5,000m distance. Her kilometer splits were: 3:08.89, 3:09.86, 3:10.82, 3:11.8 and 3:05.33. She is currently scheduled to run in the Atlanta Track Club's elite 1500-meter event next week. 

GTC-ELITE was established in 2012. The program produced four qualifiers for the 2016 USA Olympic Trials Marathon in Los Angeles, one qualifier/participant for the 2019 Pam American Games Marathon in. Lima, Peru and three qualifiers/two participants for the 2020 USA Olympic Trials Marathon in Atlanta, GA.  The post-collegiate, Olympic development program is sponsored by ASICS, the 48-year-old Greenville Track Club, Joy Real Estate (Adopt an Athlete partner), the Borch Foundation, generous individual contributors and partnerships with Performance Therapy, Carolina Spine and Rehab, Roll Recovery products, FinalSurge (on-line training log), The ATI Running Academy, ElliptiGO, NormaTec Recovery Boots, Cocoa Elite recovery products, Stryd Running, Coach Bob Williams Pace Calculator, the DorsiFlex (stretching device), the MOBO board (balance & mobility), On Pace Wellness (nutrition coaching) and LEVER Running (treadmill body weight support).  The club is a proud and active member of both the Road Runners Club of America and  USATF.​