Track to Compete at Trio of Meets this Weekend
4/2/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
SPOKANE, Wash. - The Gonzaga women's and men's track programs break into three squads for the San Francisco State Distance Carnival, Stanford Invitational, and the Sam Adams Classic Friday and Saturday.
"The Bay area logistics is the most challenging as we have three athletes competing at Stanford, with 17 other athletes competing at San Francisco State at various times," Gonzaga Director of Track Pat Tyson said. "Thus the need for three vans and three coaches to navigate shuttling the athletes to each site down Highway 101 in the highly populated San Francisco-Silicon Valley metropolitan area can be a challenge unless organized. That makes things easy for Sam Adams at Whitworth. It's just a short drive north for our volunteer assistant coach Rachel Jaten."
More than 3,300 athletes - open competitors, entrants from 109 four-year colleges, plus community colleges and high schools - will converge on Cobb Track and Angell Field on Friday and Saturday for the 40th Stanford Track and Field Invitational.
"The Stanford Invitational is a huge meet," Tyson said. "More than 50 percent of the distance qualifying fields for western and eastern NCAA Regionals emerge from the competitions there. The challenge is getting in, and this year there was a windfall of talent from all over the country. The end result is those that don't get in flow into San Francisco State. This year will have the biggest and most talented fields ever at the Cox Field oval in the City by the Bay.
"What it means for Gonzaga is that we are in the thick of some exciting opportunities to get major personal bests and nail a couple of births to Austin, Texas in late May. The whole experience provides the kind of atmosphere and competition that will make us tougher. The weather is near perfect, and the coastal sea level landscape provides for fast times."
Nick Roche returns to Stanford after breaking the GU men's 3,000-meter steeplechase record in both the past two seasons. Last year, he ran an 8:59.29, which qualified him to compete at the NCAA West Preliminary in Fayetteville, Ark.
Willie Milam makes his second appearance at the Stanford Invite. The senior will be racing in the 5,000 meters. He is the school-record holder in the event with a time of 14:00.19.
On the women's side, Jessica Mildes will be running in the 10,000 meters at Stanford.
"Jess looks very strong right now," Gonzaga women's head coach Patty Ley said. "The 10,000 can be a fickle race. There is a lot of time for things to go badly, but Jess has a history of running very well in big meets and rarely falling in to a poor performance. We are looking for a good solid performance in the mid-34-minute range that will get her to that first round of the NCAA Championship in May and give us a chance to keep working."
The Zags open the weekend at the eighth annual San Francisco State Distance Carnival Friday. The meet has evolved into a great option for distance runners to set fast times at a fantastic venue with ideal weather conditions and loaded fields. We have athletes and teams from around the country who have become part of this growing meet since 2008.
"The field size and quality at San Francisco State has grown immensely and our athletes there will definitely get the challenges they were hoping for from this trip," Ley said. "Amelia and Maggie will also be in a great heat that could yield a potential qualifier or two as well."
The Distance Carnival will feature over 170 men's and women's teams; there will be over 1,500 athletes. The meet will feature teams from 21 states, including Boston University, and Alaskan Anchorage, as well as international teams from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and New Zealand.
"San Francisco State will be just so much fun as Conor McCandless, Matt Crichlow, Kyle Branch, and Danny Lunder take on the 12.5-lap 5,000 meters," Tyson said. "Andy Phillips will be running in an elite mile field and hoping to close in on that sub-four minute magical mile. The steeple will provide Troy Fraley a chance to run sub-nine minutes. Brandon Pollard and Kinsly Smith have an opportunity to chase great times in the 1,500. Just talking about it really pumps me up."
The 10th annual Sam Adams Classic begins Saturday at 8:30 a.m. Gonzaga opens the meet at 11:15 a.m., with Emily Coic, Addi Johnson, Christina Tyson, and Christina Winters running in the women's 5,000 meters. The Bulldogs will be running in six events in the meet.
Gonzaga ScheduleFRIDAY
11:59 a.m. Women's 1,500 (Heat 5) - Urcadez, C. Fraher
12:45 p.m. Men's 1,500 (Heat 4) - Smith, Pollard
1:10 p.m. Women's steeplechase (Heat 1) - Mills
1:39 p.m. Men's steeplechase (Heat 1) - Fraley
2:27 p.m. Women's 800 (Heat 4) - C. Fraher
2:31 p.m. Women's 800 (Heat 5) - Stroosma
3:07 p.m. Men's Elite Mile - Phillips
3:13 p.m. Women's 5,000 (Heat 1) - Jones, A. Evans
3:32 p.m. Men's 5,000 (Heat 1) - McCandless
4:07 p.m. Men's 5,000 (Heat 2) - Crichlow
4:23 p.m. Women's 5,000 (Heat 3) - Thurston, A. Fraher, O. Evans
4:42 p.m. Men's 5,000 (Heat 3) - Lunder, Branch
5:45 p.m. Men's steeplechase (Heat 3) - N. Roche
7:47 p.m. Men's 5,000 (Heat 3) - Milam
8:58 p.m. Women's 10,000 (Heat 1) - Mildes
SATURDAY
11:15 a.m. Women's 5,000 - Coic, Johnson, Tyson, Winters
11:40 a.m. Men's 5,000 - Amann, Beard, Fischer, Hensley, Kaderabek, Stout, Quintana, O'Neil, Pearce, Walgren
12:15 p.m. Women's and men's 1,500 - Bergmann, Chucka, Culver, Henling, Murray Van Deynze, Wendle, Goldizen
2:10 p.m. Women and men's 800 - Albrecht, Riley, Saunders, Wika, Wiliiams, Sicalo, Goldizen
3:50 p.m. Men's steeplechase - Manley, Morris, D. Roche
4:05 p.m. Women's 1,600 relay - Bergmann-Henling / Murray-Riley-Saunders-Williams-(Anderson)
