DENVER – It's difficult to put into perspective just how unlikely it is that, in just three years, MSU Denver's Naleia Sowell has transformed herself from unheralded high school sprinter into a qualifier for the NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships in the 400 meters.
 
"Her times from high school were times that were even a bit outside of what we would consider for even walk-on times," MSU Denver coach Janis Christopher said.
 
Yet, when Sowell contacted Christopher just a couple of months before classes started in the summer of 2021, a connection came through.
 
"We had another girl from Bear Creek (High School) in Jessica Stanton who was a great worker and great student, and Jessica said she would be a good fit for our program," Christopher said. "So regardless of her ultimate athletic ability, and knowing (Sowell) wasn't super experienced, I just liked her as a person and I could see she would be a positive part of our team, so I said, 'Let's give it a shot.'"
 
The shot at MSU Denver was the only one that Sowell was planning to take. If she hadn't been able to join the Roadrunners program, she was going to just attend community college and hang up her competitive spikes.
 
But she'll be lacing them up Thursday in one of the preliminary heats at the National Championships in Emporia, Kan., scheduled to start at 4:55 p.m. MDT.
 
How did she get there?
 
Not the easy way.
 
Sowell initially thought Christopher was kidding when she said the 400 meters was her best chance for success. And success didn't come easily her freshman season.
 
"Not quitting was the only goal I had," Sowell said. "I just went to practice every single day. The season was going so bad, but I didn't want to give up. I didn't want to look back when I'm 40 and say that I only ran track in college for one year."
 
Her top time in the event that first year was a modest 1:05.65.
 
Just over two years later, she's the school record holder at 54.30 – an astonishing improvement of more than 11 seconds.
 
"To improve by 11 seconds in three (seasons) is phenomenal," Christopher said. "That first year was hard for her, emotionally and physically, because we asked her to do some things she had never done before.
 
"But she made it through that first year, bought into being a 400 runner and did some training with (teammate) Allyssa (Romero) – I think Allyssa was her model for what it would take to be a good 400 runner."
 
The breakthrough began to take pace during her sophomore season.
 
"I have come a long way, and I know it sounds corny, but I believed in myself, and I showed up and tried my hardest," Sowell said. "I gave it everything I had every day, and that's what matters."
 
After consistently running just a bit over 60 seconds in her main event as a sophomore, she finally broke through that one-minute barrier late in the season. Her times in other events, particularly the 200, also got better.
 
"When I knew she was special was when she was so consistent at coming in and asking how she could get better – what did she need to do run faster times," Christopher said.
 
Said Sowell: "You have to do things for you and nobody else, and you have to find people along the way who have similar goals and interests, and then surround yourself with people you admire to help make you the person you want to become."
 
Sowell said Romero helped plant the seed for her success, and teammates such as Teagan Garand and Claire Hummel helped it grow.
 
Family support was big, too.
 
"My mom and grandparents have done nothing but support me, and nothing would have been possible without them," she said. "I wouldn't be in school, I wouldn't be running track, and I would be a completely different person if it wasn't for them. I'm very lucky to have their full support and belief in me."
 
Sowell continued slicing seconds off her 400 time throughout the 2023-24 indoor season, setting her up for even more remarkable times this spring.
 
Sowell made that initial contact with Christopher because she thought track was fun, and that still hasn't changed.
 
"I enjoy it, and I do think it's fun," she said. "One of my main goals is to have fun. It's my goal now. Before I get into the blocks I'm dancing and talking to people.
 
"At practice, I goof off until it's time to put the work in. I have to be better than I was yesterday."
 
She also figured out that, while her freshman season was frustrating, there was a reason.
 
"I was overtraining my freshman year," she said. "After track I would go to the gym and do workouts outside of practice. But I realized that if I could do that, then I wasn't working hard enough at practice."
 
Sowell's work ethic isn't all that stands out.
 
"For years I've been trying to fill our team with good people, and she's a good person," Christopher said. "And as a staff we love developing athletes and helping them reach their full potential, whether it's as a national qualifier or someone who can just qualify for the conference championships as a senior – whatever it is."
 
It took Sowell some time to understand just how good she was getting.
 
"For a long time I had imposter syndrome," she said. "I didn't feel like I belonged in some of those races. But when you start to run in the faster heats (which are based on times) I realized that, 'Clearly, I belong here.'"
 
Sowell belongs now as one of the fastest 400-meter runners in the country in Division II.
 
"Our last meet was the first time she hadn't run a personal record (in at least one event) in two years," Christopher said. "The sky is the limit for her."
 
There is no set number of qualifiers for nationals in each event (that changes next season, when 24 are invited), and athletes can potentially have good enough times in multiple events and choose not to run all of them at nationals.
 
So when Sowell's top time slipped to No. 24 in the country, there were a couple of uneasy days before the final field was set. That pressure was relieved, though, when four ranked ahead of her chose to not run the 400 at Nationals, putting her 20^th on the list. And all of that tension was for naught when 24 eventually qualified for the event.
 
"It was really nerve-wracking," Sowell said. "It's been a long season – indoors basically merges with outdoor – and I was ready for both sides of it. If I didn't make it, I was OK with it because I'm ready for some rest and I can come back strong next season – but obviously I wanted to make it in."
 
She's MSU Denver's first qualifier for the women's Outdoor Nationals since 2015 and the program's first ever in a sprint event.
 
"It's a huge moment for MSU Denver sprints," Christopher said. "It's a testament to believing in the process and seeing it through, and allowing a four- or five-year plan to take shape. And what I've also seen is that once one person does it, the rest believe that it's possible and you start gaining momentum.
 
"You hope that it will encourage our other women, and men, to stay with us and stick to it when you can see the benefit of staying the course and trusting that you're in the right place."
 
The first goal of the National Championships – other than having fun, of course – is to try to run fast enough to qualify for Saturday's final.
 
"In my experience, it is difficult to make a final in your first time at the national championships," Christopher said. "You're running against girls you don't get to see regularly, and now they are running in the 53s – and faster – and we don't see that a lot in the RMAC.
 
"Racing against girls one or two seconds faster, instead of against the same speed or a little faster, it's easy to get out of your normal race rhythm and to feel like you have to run their race. We saw that at (Sowell's last meet), and she did look a little tighter than normal – she's usually a smooth runner, but she got out of her comfort zone when those girls took off the first 200 meters.
 
"But that was a good experience going into the National Championships. Now she has a better idea of what that looks like."
 
There's something else Sowell has in her favor, Christopher said.
 
"I never count her out," Christopher said. "At the National Championships, it's a lot about just competing, because it's been a long season for everybody, and most people are probably not necessarily peaking or trying to hold their peak that they had a few weeks ago. Now it's about who is the toughest and most competitive – and Naleia is both of those."
 
The bottom line is, Sowell is already ahead of the long-term goal – qualifying for Nationals – that Christopher had for her.
 
"I'm so proud of what she's accomplished already," Christopher said. "She's worked so hard for it, and she's believed in herself and invested in herself and given herself a chance to be a qualifier and reach her full potential. That doesn't happen very often."