Husky alum Lindsay Flanagan finishes ninth at Boston Marathon & gets Olympic Games standard...

BOSTON—University of Washington alum Lindsay Flanagan (left/photo by Mike Scott) finished ninth in the women’s elite race at Monday’s Boston Marathon on the famous point to point course from Hopkinton to Boston.

With her ninth place finish, Flanagan earned the all-important 2020 Olympic Games qualifying standard that the top ten finishers in the Abbott World Marathon Majors races—Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York received.

Flanagan stayed just outside the main pack of runners chasing eventual winner Worknesh Degefa of Ethiopia, as she went through 10k in 34:44.

As the distance progressed, she found herself 55 seconds behind the chase group at the half marathon distance, which she covered in 1:14:02, with the hilly portion of the course nearly seven miles away.

As she described in a text after the race to publisher Paul Merca, “There was a break away at mile 3 and I found myself running alone. I was nervous as this happened in 2017 when I ran and ended up solo the whole way.”

“Fortunately, two other women and I shared the lead for a while. Once we got to 16, my plan was to make a move on the hills, which I did. I slowly began to pick off people who had gone with the earlier move and were struggling.”

In the last mile, Flanagan passed two women—Sharon Cherop and former NCAA cross country champion Betsy Saina of Iowa State, to move from eleventh to ninth, and finish in a time of 2:30:07, as winner Worknesh Degefa ran 2:23:31.

Flanagan was the third American woman to finish the race, behind Oregon alum Jordan Hasay, who was third overall in 2:25:20, and Arizona State alum Des Linden, who was fifth overall in 2:27:00.

Flanagan, who currently resides in Boulder, said that, “I’m really proud of how I ran my own race and stuck to the game plan my coach Steve Magness and I discussed beforehand.”

In addition to the all-important Tokyo Olympic Games qualifying standard, she earned $5700.

Western Washington alum Sarah Crouch, who was in the elite field, finished in a time of 2:48:05.

In an Instagram post after the race, she revealed that she had a stress fracture in her femur, after getting an MRI last week.

View this post on Instagram

Six days ago my MRI result came back and I decided to race anyway knowing that I was risking a stress fracture. Today I finished the Boston Marathon on a femur that fractured about halfway into the race. Today was the slowest marathon of my professional career and I have never in my life been so proud to finish. Sometimes big risks are worth it and other times they completely blow up in your face, but I will look back on today with the knowledge that I am a tough son of a gun. * Obviously guys, do as I say, not as I do! The hope today was that the leg would hold up and I could contend for a top 10 spot that would secure an Olympic A Standard heading into 2020. In my case, the risk felt equal to the reward, but of course this is not always the case. Consult with your coach before you try running on an iffy leg!

A post shared by Sarah Crouch (@sarahcrouch1989) on Apr 15, 2019 at 9:40am PDT

In one of the closest Boston Marathon finishes, Lawrence Cherono of Kenya held off two-time Boston champ Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia, 2:07:57 to 2:07:59.

University of Portland alum Scott Fauble was the top American finisher in seventh in 2:09:09, while 2016 US Olympian Jared Ward was one place behind in 2:09:25.

Complete results of the Boston Marathon are available here.

NOTE:  The Boston Athletic Association contributed to this report.