Florida State University announced on April 7 that women’s track and field athlete Rylee Blade has been named the Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Rookie of the Week. Blade is only the second Seminole in program history to receive this honor during the outdoor season, following teammate Alexa Schwartz who earned it the previous week.
This recognition highlights Blade’s achievements and dedication as a freshman competing at a high level in a strong conference. The award reflects her performance at recent competitions and her potential for future success.
Blade competed at the Stanford Invitational on April 3, returning to her home state of California. She ran in section two of the women’s 5,000-meter event, finishing fourth overall as both the top freshman and top ACC runner with a time of 15:39.71. This result is now recorded as the fourth-fastest time in Florida State program history and currently ranks third among all runners in the conference this season.
“Great accomplishment for Rylee,” said FSU head coach Matt Kane. “She has stayed loyal to her training and was good to see her have a breakthrough meet. Looking forward to the rest of the outdoor season.” Assistant coach Cody Halsey also commented on Blade’s achievement: “We are incredibly proud of Rylee being named the ACC Freshman of the Week. This is a huge but well earned and deserved honor given the strength of our conference. Rylee has big goals ahead, so it was really rewarding to see her race with poise and confidence finishing in a collegiate personal best! We are very excited for what’s to come for Rylee.”
The Florida State track team will return home this weekend for competition at Mike Long Track during the Dick Roberts Seminole Invite scheduled from April 10-11.
