Weather Leads to Big Changes in NCAA Prelim Schedule
5/26/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Inclement weather led to the suspension of all of Day 1's events at the NCAA West Preliminaries at Rock Chalk Park Thursday. The suspension greatly altered the second and third days' original schedule.
Maggie Jones, Kellen Manley and Shelby Mills are all representing Gonzaga at the University of Kansas, and all had their races moved ahead of the original schedule.
Mills will open the meet for the Zags in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase at 10:45 a.m. Pacific Time Friday. Manley will follow in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase at 11:25 a.m. Jones runs in the women's 5,000 meters Saturday at 11:20 a.m.
"Big changes to the schedule tomorrow and Saturday," GU women's Head Coach Patty Ley said. "The forecast is for thunderstorms again in the late afternoon, so looks like they decided to try to start early enough to hopefully miss the weather. We are safe, but it was pretty wild at times with wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour. The team tent area was blown apart. We're hoping the weather holds up for the morning!"
Mills enters the first heat with the sixth-best seed-time (9:56.17) in the region and the second-fastest in her heat. Manley's 8:57.75 seed-time is 13th in the second heat. Jones is seeded 16th in the second heat of Saturday's 5,000.
The top three times from each heat, plus the next best three overall times, in the steeplechase races advance to the national semifinals. In the 5,000 meters, the top five times from each heat, plus the next best two times, move to the semifinals. The national semifinals and finals will be June 8-11, in Eugene, Ore.
Kansas will still host the live stream and broadcast all running events Friday and Saturday with the live video link available on GoZags.com. The stream will begin at 6 a.m. Pacific Time with the women's 10,000 meters. There will be just a video feed and no commentary for the 10,000-meter races. The formal broadcast begins at 7:15 a.m. with commentary for the rest of the running events Friday. Live results will also be available on GoZags.com.
