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EDMONTON, Alberta – The moment was not too big for Erin Teschuk.
 
On Friday evening, the opportunity for which she had been preparing for more than two years finally arrived. With her trademark calmness and confidence, she stared her dreams dead in the eye.
 
And then she achieved them.
 
Teschuk won her second consecutive national title in the 3,000m steeplechase at the Canadian Track & Field Championships and Olympic Trials, earning a spot on Team Canada for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
 
Teschuk's time of 9:40.07 at the IAAF World Championships last August had already checked one required box – surpassing the Olympic qualifying standard in the event. Her top-three finish on Friday met the other requirement for her to represent Canada at the Olympics.
 
Teschuk won with a time of 9:50.99 on Friday, breaking her own meet record that she set on the way to her first national steeplechase crown one year ago. She topped a field that featured five women with qualifying times faster than the Olympic standard of 9:45.00.
 
On the final lap, Teschuk passed Geneviève Lalonde – the Canadian national record holder in the event – to move into first place, and then she used a strong finishing kick over the final barrier to seal the victory.
 
The Winnipeg, Manitoba, native is a seven-time first-team All-American in track and cross country for North Dakota State, with her most recent honor coming at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
 
Teschuk, 21, will become the sixth former NDSU athlete to compete in the Summer Olympic Games.
 
While Teschuk is not the first track & field athlete with NDSU ties to qualify for the Olympics – Bison alum Amanda Smock competed for the U.S. in the triple jump in 2012 – she is the first to do so as a current NDSU student-athlete. She plans to graduate in August before pursuing a professional running career.
 
Of all the amazing accomplishments that supporters of NDSU Athletics have witnessed in the last several years – five consecutive national titles in football, three NCAA Tournament appearances and one Big Dance victory in men's basketball, seven NCAA Regionals in eight years plus a Super Regional appearance in softball, Steven Monk's third-place finish at the NCAA Wrestling Championships, the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft – one more entry has been added to that impressive list. And it should fall somewhere near the top.
 
It reads, simply:
 
Erin Teschuk, Olympian.
 
 
NDSU's Summer Olympians
 

• Brad Rheingans (1976, Montreal, Greco-Roman heavyweight, USA)
• John Morgan (1988, Seoul, Greco-Roman middleweight, USA)
• Janet Cobbs (1992, Barcelona, volleyball, USA)
• Tamara Brudy (1996, Atlanta, 4x400m relay, Saint Kitts and Nevis)
• Amanda Smock (2012, London, triple jump, USA)
• Erin Teschuk (2016, Rio, 3000m steeplechase, Canada)