NC State’s Angelina Napoleon posts top-10 finish in World Championship, fastest American in 3,000-meter steeplechase

It’s been quite the calendar year for NC State junior Angelina Napoleon. From a third-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Championships to signing an Adidas NIL deal, Napoleon cemented herself as one of the top up-and-coming American runners. 

Now, she backed it up in her World Championship debut. Napoleon finished ninth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase final with a 9:17.44 on Wednesday night local time in Tokyo. The Wolfpack’s two-time All-American on the track was the fastest American woman in the race, edging Kaylee Mitchell (10th, 9:18.66) and Lexy Halladay (14th, 9:34.03) on the world stage. 

Napoleon’s path to the World Championships over the past three months was impressive. She clocked a personal best 9:10.96 to finish second in the U.S. Championships held at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field in early August. 

The Allegany, N.Y., native dropped six seconds off her best from the NCAA Championships, where she logged the Wolfpack program record 9:16.66 in the event, in her U.S Championships run to make the World team. Napoleon dropped more than 44 seconds off her personal best since the start of the calendar year. 

Although Napoleon ran slower at the World Championships than she did at the U.S. or NCAA Championships, she still outperformed her world ranking of 21st in the event going into the meet. 

Now, Napoleon is set to turn her focus back to NC State’s college cross country season, which begins Friday at the Adidas XC Challenge in Cary. The Wolfpack women enter Week 1 of the 2025 season as the No. 3 team in the coaches poll and will pursue the program’s fourth national championship in the last five years.