Longwood University Cross Country Head Coach and Farmville native Catherine Hanson upheld her status as one of the top sprint triathletes in the nation, placing fifth in her age group at the 2017 USA Triathlon Sprint National Championship on Saturday morning in Omaha, Nebraska. Her placement, earned with a personal-record (PR) time, qualified her to represent the U.S. at a world championship event next year.

A two-time cancer survivor, the 47-year-old Hanson earned a spot on the podium by placing fifth out of 51 racers in her 45-49 age group, and 54th overall out of the 458 female runners at the national championship.

The fifth-place finish earns Hanson a spot on the Team USA roster at the International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Triathlon Championships in Australia in September 2018. It also earned her another automatic entry into the next edition of the USA Triathlon National Championships.

Hanson competed in the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Championships in Cozumel, Mexico, where she placed 21st out of 60 international racers.

“I am so unbelievably blessed,” said Hanson, who is now entering her 11th season as Longwood’s head men’s and women’s cross country coach in 2017. “It had to have been the best race I’ve ever competed in. Everything just went so smoothly, from the weather to my performances in each leg. To have PR’ed at a national venue is a dream come true.”

Hanson is now a two-time Team USA qualifier for the ITU World Championships despite facing separate cancer diagnoses in 2014 and late 2016. Not even one year removed from her final round of treatments due to her second bout with cancer, Hanson clocked a personal-record time of one hour, 14 minutes and 50.57 seconds Saturday on the three-leg sprint course, which features a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer bike and a five-kilometer run.

Sporting close-cut hair that is still growing back from the chemotherapy she underwent this past winter, Hanson shot out of the swim leg of the national championship race in sixth place. She stayed within the top 10 during the cycle portion and then surged into the top five by burning through the 5K run in 20:21, a pace of 6:33 per mile.

With the national championships behind her, Hanson will turn her focus to Longwood’s upcoming cross country season, which opens at the Hokie Invitational in Blacksburg on Sept. 1.