Last Chance for Track in Provo
5/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
SPOKANE, Wash. - The Gonzaga women's and men's track programs have one meet remaining in their respective regular seasons. That means they have one final shot at qualifying for the NCAA West Preliminaries, or to put a positive finish on a productive season.
Thirty-one Zags travel to Provo, Utah, for the BYU Last Chance Invitational. The event name says it all. Athletes will have one more opportunity in the regular season at the Clarence F. Robison Track and Field Complex Wednesday and Thursday.
Participants at the meet will include BYU, Gonzaga and a handful of athletes from Arkansas State, Westminster and Utah.
"Patty (Ley) and I are really excited about this meet in Utah," Gonzaga Director of Track Pat Tyson said. "For the most part it looks like a BYU/Gonzaga distance race dual. As I told our athletes, I am pumped! BYU defines excellence in distance running. They have a boatload of NCAA qualifiers. I really love shadowing great teams, and BYU is a great team coached by a great coach; Ed Eyestone on the men's side and Patrick Shane on the women's side. They love to be front runners and the competitiveness of our sport! So we will bring 18 men and 13 ladies to be a part of what we consider a great opportunity to test our competitiveness and at the same time add another runner or two or three to our posse going to Austin."
To qualify for a trip to Austin, Texas, and the NCAA West Preliminaries, the top 48 declared student-athletes will be accepted into the competition.
Entering the last regular season meet, Willie Milam is 31st in the 5,000 meters. The senior broke the program record at the Stanford Invitational with a time of 13:53.74. He also set a new 10,000-meter school record at the Mt. SAC Relays. His time of 29:49.78 is currently 44th in the west region. The Portland, Ore. native, will be chasing the illustrious sub-four-minute mile Thursday. Milam's seed time is 4:01.67.
Troy Fraley and Matthew Crichlow sit just on the outside of the top-48 in the 10,000 meters. Fraley's time of 30:07.13 is 53rd, while Crichlow is 54th at 30:07.27. Both times were also set at the Mt. SAC Relays, and are second and third all-time at GU.
Fraley sits comfortably in 28th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. The sophomore ran an 8:56.23 at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival. Nick Roche is 48th at 9:00.19, ran at the Stanford Invitational. He will run in the event Thursday, with a seed time of 8:59.29, the second-fastest time on the GU all-time list. The senior ran that time last season at Stanford, qualifying him for the NCAA regional prelims.
"Thursday's 3000-meter steeplechase looks to be very competitive with five BYU guys under nine minutes," Tyson said. "That is just what Nick Roche needs! A sub-9:10 should get him a guaranteed spot with the roughly 10-second altitude conversion."
If the regular season ended today, Shelby Mills would have the 12th fastest time in the west region at 10:18.42. The sophomore shattered the previous school record by nearly 30 seconds at the Mt. SAC Relays. Her time is currently 43rd in the country.
Jessica Mildes, the program-record holder in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Currently, she is 11th in the region in the 10,000 meters at 33:40.82, and 33rd in the 5,000 meters in the 5,000 meters at 16:16.88. The junior's 10,000-meter time is 19th in the nation.
Maggie Jones and Amelia Evans sit on the regional qualifying bubble. Jones' 5,000-meter time of 16:27.86 is 50th in the region, while Evans is 52nd in the 10,000 meters at 35:07.03.
"It's nice to have one more meet for a lot of our ladies," Gonzaga women's head coach Patty Ley said. "Their training has been going well and I'm excited to see them finish with personal records this week. It's nice to have a few days after finals for them to decompress from that stress and get excited for a race.
"We will be keeping Jessica Mildes home and Maggie Jones has an academic conference she is presenting at in Seattle, so she won't make the trip either. We are looking for some ‘speed work' from Shelby Mills by entering her in the mile - not her favorite event - but forces her to deal with the faster developing type of race she may see in Austin. The 5,000 looks to be an event where several women will be chasing a qualifying mark - which sets Amelia up really well. The altitude conversions are pretty generous, and her experience at altitude really helps going in to the meet."
The meet will begin Wednesday at 12 p.m. MDT with the women's heptathlon, and will run through Thursday until 4 p.m. Corrine Murray will open the meet for Gonzaga in the women's steeplechase Thursday at 1 p.m. Live results will be available on GoZags.com.
Gonzaga scheduleThursday (times are Mountain Time Zone)
1:00 - Women's 3000m steeplechase: Murray
1:15 - Men's 3000m steeplechase: Branch, Manley, N. Roche
1:25 - Women's mile: Chucka, Culver, Mills
1:42 - Men's mile: Amann, Fraley, McCandless, Milam, O'Neil, Phillips, Pollard, Van Deynze
2:26 - Women's 800m: Anderson, C. Fraher, Saunders, Stroosma, Williams
2:30 - Men's 800m: Smith
3:12 - Women's 5000m: A. Evans, O. Evans, A. Fraher, Thurston
3:32 - Men's 5000m: Crichlow, Kaderabek, Lunder, Pearce, Quintana, Walgren
