Ruth White has made quite an impression on University of New Hampshire track and field coach Allison Duffy. “She’s relentless. She’s gritty, she’s unflappable, and she pulled all of that together in the regional race last week,” Duffy said after White, an Orono native, qualified for the NCAA Division I track and field championships by running a school-record time of 32 minutes, 50.17 seconds in the 10,000 meters at the East Regional on May 29 in Jacksonville, Florida. White finished sixth in a race in which the top 12 advanced to the NCAA championships in Eugene, Oregon. A freshman at UNH, White is one of two Maine athletes to qualify for the NCAA championships at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field. Cheverus graduate Victoria Bossong, a senior at Harvard, qualified in the 800. The 10,000 final is at 9:56 p.m. Thursday. Bossong runs in the semifinals of the 800 at 8:58 p.m. Thursday. White has enjoyed an impressive start to her college career. She first claimed the school record in the 10,000 by running 33:27.57 in a meet at Bryant University on March 28, breaking a mark set by fellow Maine native Erica Jesseman in 2011 (34:30.30). White then won the America East title, lowering her time to 32:57.83, and broke the record again at the East Regional. White, who also broke UNH’s record in the 5,000 while winning the New England championship (16:22.78), was dominant at Orono High School. She won three New England cross country championships and was named the Varsity Maine Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year three times. That excellence has carried over to college. “I’ve always liked longer distances, so when I got the opportunity to run the 10,000 this spring, I was super excited,” White said. “I think one of the things that’s helped me improve a lot is having teammates to train with every single day. Just the supportiveness of the team, it’s such good camaraderie.” White is quick to credit her teammates, opponents and coaches for much of her success. “(My coaches) collaborate on training plans and help to get our team faster and stay healthy, which I really appreciate,” White said. “From the three 10,000 times this spring, the first time, they didn’t really have a sense of what time I’d run. But I was really lucky to be in a race with these other girls who are running at a really consistent pace. That was a really fun experience.” White is the first female runner from UNH to qualify for the NCAA championships since Elle Purrier St. Pierre, now a two-time Olympian, in 2018. She is the lone New Hampshire athlete to qualify this season. “I talked with her about being excited and not so much being nervous,” Duffy said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. No one does. But you need to remind yourself what a season you’ve had. And there’s more to come.” As White prepared for nationals, White was keenly aware of just how special this moment is – especially as a freshman. “I think my coaches and I are on the same page that we’re just super excited that I get this opportunity and get the opportunity to meet college athletes from around the country,” White said. While this is White’s first NCAA outdoor championship meet, it’s the last one for Bossong. Bossong, a Cumberland native, was Varsity Maine Girls Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year as a sophomore at Cheverus, where she was a multi-time state champion in the 100, 200 and 400. “In high school, I was definitely more sprint based. The 400 was definitely my main event, and I had pretty good times, but I rarely did the 800,” Bossong said. “But going into college, my coach saw something in me and thought I’d be pretty successful in the 800. There was a little bit of pushback against that because I really, really wanted to stay a sprinter, especially because running the 800 was pretty painful when I didn’t have the extra distance training.” Bossong found success in the 800 her junior year, qualifying for both the NCAA championships and the U.S. Olympic Trials. In March, she finished second at the NCAA indoor championships with a time of 2:00.93 after running 2:00.82 in the prelims. “I was (almost) able to break the 2-minute barrier (at the indoor championships), which is really exciting for me, but I’m trying to cut down a few more seconds, too, so definitely with the goal in mind going into the outdoor championships to be the national champion and kind of get revenge from indoors,” Bossong said. Bossong’s qualifying time of 2:01.83 was fifth fastest among the nine runners from the East who advanced to nationals. “The work is already done and the workouts (this week) really were just for confidence and to prove to myself I’m in good shape,” Bossong said. “The fitness was already there, so it was more about confidence. So (this week), I just did a lot of things that made me happy, and now I’m really in a good headspace going into the final.” Bossong has been working toward a degree in neuroscience but is putting that on hold, as well as her plan to go to medical school, so that she can pursue a professional running career. “We’ll keep training this summer for the world (championships),” Bossong said. “I mean, we’ll see what happens at trials and everything, but yeah, professional runner from here on out.”