BERLIN - No American woman has ever finished higher than seventh in the 5,000-meter race at the World Championships of Track and Field.

Libbie Hickman of Colorado was seventh over the line at Athens in 1997 and Villanova grad Jen Rhines ran seventh at Osaka in 2007.

Now, Rhines gets the chance to improve on that situation.

An unpressed 15:20.20 qualifying performance in the preliminaries Wednesday morning will send the 35-year-old Rhines, a three-time USA Olympian, back onto the blue rubberized track at Olympic Stadium for the 5,000-meter final Saturday night.

She will be the lone American lined up against such notables of the international distance running world as Meseret Defar and Messelech Malkamu of Ethiopia,and Vivian Cheruiyot and Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet of Kenya.

On paper, she's totally outclassed.

Defar (14:12.88) and Cheruiyot (14:22.51) are the second and third fastest female 5,000-meter runners in history. Rhines' career best is the 14:54.29 she ran at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway last year.

But that doesn't mean she's taking on a mission impossible.

"Sure I know I have to step it up from today, but that's been my goal all year," she said after her race in the prelims.

"I'm just coming into top form at the right time this year. I feel really fresh right now and in peak shape. So I'm very excited about getting back out there.

"Today's race was comfortable, I felt relaxed and, yeah, I was pretty pleased."

Defar (14:57.91) and Cheruiyot (14:58.50) went 1-2 with Kibet (14:59.26) fourth in the tightly contested 5,000 final held lin steamy condiitions last year in Osaka,

It boiled down to an exciting homestretch sprint and Rhines (15:03.09) came home just 20 meters out of medal range.

She carried that momentum on to the 2008 Beijng Olympics, making the 5,000 final but limping home in 14th place when a plantar fasciitis problem flared up.

"That was awful," she remembered. "I just kind of shuffled around. Luckily, it didn't need surgery. I took a month off afterward, got treatment, and it just kind of healed."

Rhines is a rare commodity, a brilliant collegiate runner who kept right on running, and running and running, after her undergraduate days.

After winning the 1994-95 NCAA Triple Crown - national titles in cross country, indoor and outdoor track - and earning a degree in civil engineering, she missed out in the 1996 Olympic Trials (placing 12th in the 10,000 meters).

But she made the 2000 Olympic team (running 16th in the prelims of the Sydney 10,000) and moved up to the marathon in 2004 (finishing 34th in Athens).

Having a husband for a coach is one key to her longevity in the sport. She and Terrence Mahon (also an ex-Villanova distance star) have been man-and-wife since Nov. 30, 1998.

These days, their training base is in Mammoth Lakes, Cal.

The surroundings there mimic the sport - always another mountain to climb.

Rutgers graduate Julie Culley, the only other USA 5,000 entrant, had no such luck, running 15:32.63 in her heat. It took a 15:25.09 to make the 15-runner final.

Out of luck, too, was Princeton grad Tora Harris, the reigning USA men's high jump champion After clearing 2.24 meters (7 feet, 4 inches) on his third attempt, he bowed out after one miss at 2.27 (7-51/4) and two more at 2.30 (7-61/2).