EUGENE, Ore. -- For the second race in a row, senior Damian Hackett's final kick was the key to his success. Hackett's strong close got him eighth overall in the 1500 meter run to garner first-team All-America honors on Friday afternoon at Hayward Stadium on day three of the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. 

Running the fifth-fastest final 400 meter split, Hackett climbed up two spots to finish in 3:47.74, nipping Michigan's Brendan Herger and Princeton's Harrison Witt by less than two-tenths of a second at the wire. In a race run at a tactical pace, the Big Red senior went out fast and sat in the top three after the first lap. He fell back to the middle of the 12-man pack midway through and was in 11th before going to the outside after the bell for the final lap. He turned on the jets and only reached the top eight over the final six strides to score for the Big Red.

Hackett, the 2024 Ivy League Heptagonal champion at 1500 meters, graduates as the school record-holder in the event with his time of 3:36.78 earlier this season. He also owns school records in the 800 outdoors (1:47.40) and the indoor 1000 meters (2:20.42) and mile (3:56.15), along with running the anchor of the record-breaking distance medley relay indoors (9:22.09) and leading off the DMR outdoors (9:33.32).