Zags Felnagle, Thomas, Drake In A Texas State Of Mind
5/17/2013 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
SPOKANE, Wash. - The declarations are in and Brent Felnagle, Lindsey Drake and Emily Thomas will represent Gonzaga University in the NCAA Division I Outdoor West Preliminary Track and Field Meet in Austin, Texas, beginning next Thursday.
Thomas, a senior out of Camas High in Washougal, Wash., will be making her second straight appearance in the 10,000 meters after qualifying a year ago. Drake, a senior from High in Carlsbad, Calif., qualified in the 5000 meters and Felnagle, a sophomore from Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, Wash., will run the 1500 meters.
For Drake and Felnagle it will be their first appearance in the West Preliminary.
Thomas, seeded 36th a year ago, is seeded 23rd this time around with a school-record qualifying time of 34:41/97. Last year she finished 24th in 35:55.98.
Drake is ranked 35th in the 5K with a school-record qualifying time of 16:22.53.
Felnagle, the most unlikely of the three to qualify, is ranked 47th with a school-record qualifying time of 3:46.61.
Freshman Conor McCandless qualified was 43rd in the 5000 meters with a school-record time of 14:08.77 but had to scratch because of plantar fasciitis, a painful inflammatory process of the sole on the bottom of the foot that has sidelined him most of the spring season.
Felnagle was ranked 77th heading into Monday's declarations when coaches must declare what event(s) their qualifiers will run. Felnagle wasn't even on head coach Pat Tyson's radar as a potential qualifier.
"I just knew based on the possible candidates going to Austin there was no way he would be able to get into that top 48," Tyson said. "But Patty (assistant coach Patty Ley) called me about me about 10 a.m. Thursday. I was a little shocked to be quite honest. Then I got online to make sure it was true and there it was 47th out of 48.
"I sent a text to John Nelson (staff accountant who handles athletic travel) to make certain we had an airline ticket for Brent. Then I sent a text to Brent but he had already heard from Nick Roche who is always mister stat guy. He sounded happy on the phone and I told him to get into the office, the staff congratulated him and then we set up a plan of workouts for between now and Tuesday and the plan of action for Austin."
Tyson said to have three runners representing the Zags in Austin "is pretty amazing. When you look at these athletes going to Austin and where they came from. They were modest, which means not too good of a high school career.
"If you look at Emily she never had a high school career (she played softball). She was the first Zag in history last year and for her to travel with two of her teammates to Austin is incredible. Nobody recruited her, we gave her a shot and that's so cool. Lindsey, again nobody really recruited her. She battled some injuries. We knew she was pretty good, but what a marvelous year breaking the 800 record, the 1500 record and the 5000 record and a couple of indoor records is really cool. Felnagle was a 4:18 once 1600 meter runner at Bellarmine and placed eighth at State. He could walk on here like Lindsey walked on and Emily walked on and they are all heading to Austin."
Felnagle will be the first Zag to compete in Austin, the 1500 meters first round starting at 4 p.m. PDT Thursday. The quarterfinals are set for 4:45 p.m. PDT Saturday.
Thomas will run the 10,000 meters at 7 p.m. PDT Thursday, with Drake in the 5000 meters Saturday at 6:05 p.m. PDT.
The top 12 finishers in each event will advance to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., June 5-8.
