Mills Ready for the Spotlight in Eugene

EUGENE, Ore. - In only her sophomore season, Shelby Mills will be the first Gonzaga student-athlete to compete at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships. She qualified for the semifinals in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase with a 10^th place finish at the NCAA West Preliminary Round on May 29.

Mills is in the national semifinals at historic Hayward Field on Thursday. The event begins at 4:38 p.m. on the campus of the University of Oregon. She is in the second of two heats.

Entering the event, Mills has the 22^nd-fastest seed time in the 24-runner field, and the 11^th-best in her heat. The top five finishers from each heat, along with the next two best overall times, advance to Saturday's national final. Michigan State's Leah O'Connor has the best seed time in the field at 9:35.33. Colleen Quigley of Florida State has the top time in the second heat at 9:38.24. The fifth-fastest seed time in the second heat is 9:54.76.

"This is really exciting," Mills said. "It's something that I have trained for since I came to Gonzaga. At regionals, I wish I would have competed a little bit more. I kind of just sat in fourth and hoped for the time to make it through. Now, I'm hoping for another shot to crack 10 minutes, qualify for finals, or do something really cool."

In Austin, Texas, at the preliminaries, 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.

"Going in I think she was underrated," GU women's Head Coach Patty Ley said. "She was 14^th heading into the regional meet, so she had the opportunity to do it. I had a pretty good feeling when she went out with the leaders and she was right there. Over that last barrier, and that last little kick home, watching the clock click, I realized she had the second-fastest time needed."

Going into the preliminaries, Mills had the 14^th-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.

"Shelby did something that has never been done in Gonzaga history," Director of Gonzaga track Pat Tyson said. "Ninety-six steeplechasers, 48 from the east and 48 from the west, 12 from each, and 24 make the cut to Eugene. It's almost like the Final Four, it's the final 24. And, we have a Zag in the mix."

Thursday's national semifinal race will be available on ESPNU. Live video and results from all of the national championships will be available with links on GoZags.com.

3000m National Championship Semifinalists

	Name	Yr	School	Seed
1	557 Leah O'Connor	SR	Michigan State	9:35.33
2	289 Colleen Quigley	JR	Florida State	9:38.24
3	1059 Courtney Frerichs	JR	UMKC	9:48.30
4	473 Madelin Talbert	JR	Lipscomb	9:50.57
5	253 Victoria Voronko	SR	E. Michigan	9:51.63
6	252 Sofie Gallein	JR	E. Michigan	9:52.66
7	807 Tori Gerlach	JR	Penn State	9:53.98
8	846 Emily Ritter	SR	Rider	9:54.34
9	125 Rachel Johnson	SR	Baylor	9:54.38
10	823 Elizabeth Bird	SO	Princeton	9:54.76
11	662 Elinor Purrier	SO	New Hampshire	9:57.25
12	688 Maddie Van Beek	SR	ND State	9:57.60
13	585 Cornelia Griesche	JR	Miss State	9:58.06
14	750 Ingeborg Loevnes	JR	Okla State	9:59.18
15	148 Marisa Howard	SR	Boise State	9:59.55
16	217 Erin Clark	FR	Colorado	9:59.67
17	661 Laura Rose Donegan	SO	New Hampshire	9:59.71
18	31 Katelyn Greenleaf	JR	Alabama	10:00.77
19	687 Erin Teschuk	JR	ND State	10:01.33
20	84 Jessica Kamilos	JR	Arkansas	10:02.60
21	629 Heather Demorest	SR	Montana State	10:02.77
22	347 Shelby Mills	SO	Gonzaga	10:11.37
23	85 Shannon Klenke	SR	Arkansas	10:12.05
24	368 Alycia Butterworth	SR	Idaho	10:12.68

Players Mentioned

Shelby Mills

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Completed Event: Track and Field versus NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships - 5,000m on June 13, 2026 ,

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