Mackenzie Donahue
Daemen College track and field star Mackenzie Donahue completed her final race as a Wildcat, running to a ninth-place finish in the 10,000-meter run competition at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field National Championship meet on May 25 at IMG Academy.
Donahue posted a time of 35:55.69 in the race, finishing ninth overall. The Daemen senior had entered the 21-participant field as the No. 15 seed. She finished ahead of four runners who were seeded higher entering the race.
Her ninth-place finish earned Donahue second-team All-America recognition. Donahue becomes the fourth Daemen athlete to garner All-American honors at the NCAA Division II level, joining former men’s basketball player Gerald Beverly, who was an honorable mention All-American selection by the Daktronics/Division II Conference Commissioners Association for the 2014-15 season; former men’s basketball player Torrence Dyck, who was named an honorable mention All-American by Division II Bulletin; and volleyball player Ashley Drzymala, who was named an honorable mention All-American by the American Volleyball Coaches Association last fall.
Donahue qualified to participate in the race by virtue of her fastest 10,000-meter time of the season, which she posted at the Brockport Invitational on April 14, 2017. She won the 10,000-meter race there with a school-record time of 35:35.11, which at the time ranked first in the country for all female Division II runners competing at this distance this season. She went on to win the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter distances at the East Coast Conference Championship meet on April 22. She established a new ECC Championship benchmark with her time of 38:31.11 in the 10,000-meter race, and posted a 5,000-meter time of 17:15.80.
For her achievements, Donahue was named an All-Region honoree in both the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter races by the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association.
A three-time Daemen College Female Athlete of the Year, Donahue became Daemen’s first-ever national championship qualifier and participant in any sport at the NCAA Division II level back in 2015 when she competed in the national championship meet for cross country. She added national championship berths for both indoor and outdoor track and field to finish her career with three national championship appearances.
She ended her cross country career last fall with 19 top-10 finishes (in 25 career racers) and was also Daemen’s top finisher 22 times over her career, while earning All-ECC honors for four-straight years, and All-East Region honors for two consecutive seasons. Her historic indoor track season included five individual team records, repeating as ECC champion in both the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter runs. She will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest all-time athletes to come through Daemen.