Mills Places 21st at National Championships
6/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
EUGENE, Ore. - Shelby Mills made history for Gonzaga University Thursday. The redshirt sophomore became the first Zag to compete at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships, and placed 21st in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Mills crossed the line at historic Hayward Field at 10:39.23. She finished 11th in the second heat. Entering the event, Mills has the 22nd-fastest seed time in the 24-runner field, and the 11th-best in her heat. The second of the two heats produced the top five times in the 24-runner field. The top five times from each heat, along with the two fastest remaining times, advanced to Saturday's national final.
North Dakota State's Erin Teschuk had the fastest semifinal time at 9:53.93. Courtney Frerichs of Missouri-Kansas City had the second-best time at 9:54.07. Florida State's Colleen Quigley entered with the best seed time in the second heat (9:38.24); she finished at 9:54.12 Thursday. Michigan State's Leah O'Connor has the best seed time in the field at 9:35.33. She placed first in the opening heat at 9:55.58, the sixth-fastest overall in the semifinals.
In Austin, Texas, at the NCAA West Preliminary Round on May 29, Mills broke her own program record with a time of 10:11.37. She finished fourth in the second heat, and qualified with one of the top 12 times in the 48-runner field. The Snohomish, Wash. native was not an automatic qualifier from her heat, but she had the third fastest at-large time.
"Kind of a rough one today," GU women's Head Coach Patty Ley said. "I think she was just overwhelmed by all of it. Sometimes being the first can be pretty hard. It will always be easier in the future. She is really tired too. It has been a long year of awesome performance after awesome performance, and today she carried the Gonzaga banner with honor. She is disappointed, but will bounce back."
Going into the preliminaries, Mills had the 14th-best seed time at 10:18.42, the fourth fastest in her heat. Earlier this season, she shattered the program's previous school record by nearly 30 seconds at the Mt. SAC Relays.
"I'm very, very proud of her," Ley said. "She has handled herself with grace and poise throughout the year. Sometimes when the climb has been so steep it can be pretty scary to look back. She will see things in perspective soon. So very blessed she is a Zag!"
3000m National Championship Semifinals| Name | Yr | School | Time | Heat (Place) | |||||
| 1 | Erin Teschuk | JR | North Dakota State | 9:53.93 | Q | 2 (1) | |||
| 2 | Courtney Frerichs | JR | UMKC | 9:54.07 | Q | 2 (2) | |||
| 3 | Colleen Quigley | JR | Florida State | 9:54.12 | Q | 2 (3) | |||
| 4 | Marisa Howard | SR | Boise State | 9:54.25 | Q | 2 (4) | |||
| 5 | Rachel Johnson | SR | Baylor | 9:54.52 | Q | 2 (5) | |||
| 6 | Leah O'Connor | SR | Michigan State | 9:55.58 | Q | 1 (1) | |||
| 7 | Emily Ritter | SR | Rider | 9:55.89 | Q | 1 (2) | |||
| 8 | Laura Rose Donegan | SO | New Hampshire | 9:58.95 | Q | 1 (3) | |||
| 9 | Maddie Van Beek | SR | North Dakota State | 9:58.97 | Q | 1 (4) | |||
| 10 | Victoria Voronko | SR | Eastern Michigan | 9:59.09 | Q | 1 (5) | |||
| 11 | Heather Demorest | SR | Montana State | 10:04.43 | q | 1 (6) | |||
| 12 | Elinor Purrier | SO | New Hampshire | 10:10.74 | q | 2 (6) | |||
| 13 | Madelin Talbert | JR | Lipscomb | 10:14.25 | 2 (7) | ||||
| 14 | Tori Gerlach | JR | Penn State | 10:14.79 | 1 (7) | ||||
| 15 | Erin Clark | FR | Colorado | 10:15.83 | 1 (8) | ||||
| 16 | Cornelia Griesche | JR | Miss State | 10:19.36 | 2 (8) | ||||
| 17 | Katelyn Greenleaf | JR | Alabama | 10:21.85 | 2 (9) | ||||
| 18 | Sofie Gallein | JR | Eastern Michigan | 10:27.05 | 1 (9) | ||||
| 19 | Alycia Butterworth | SR | Idaho | 10:28.94 | 2 (10) | ||||
| 20 | Shannon Klenke | SR | Arkansas | 10:30.51 | 1 (10) | ||||
| 21 | Shelby Mills | SO | Gonzaga | 10:39.23 | 2 (11) | ||||
| 22 | Elizabeth Bird | SO | Princeton | 10:51.92 | 2 (12) | ||||
| Jessica Kamilos | JR | Arkansas | DNS | 1, | |||||
| Ingeborg Loevnes | JR | Oklahoma State | DNS | 1, |
