Schnell finished 17th at the Iowa State open, with all but one runner in front of her being from an NCAA Division I school.  Ayla Mitchell from Wis.-Oshkosh finished in 4:45.8 to also earn an automatic berth in the national championships.  Schnell's time of 4:53.58 beat the 4:55.0 cutoff time for automatic qualifiers.

This will be the second-straight trip to the NCAA Indoor championships for Schnell, as she qualified for last year's championship in the 800 meter run.

The 2009 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships will be held March 13-14 at the Sports and Recreation Center on the campus of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana.