Gonzaga Track Ready for Regionals
5/23/2018 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Live Video | Live Results | NCAA West Preliminaries Site
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Troy Fraley, Alex Heffelfinger, Scott Kopczynski, Kellen Manley, Brandon Pollard, Sammy Truax and Mason Villarma will represent Gonzaga at the 2018 NCAA Track and Field West Preliminaries Thursday through Saturday. The seven competing Zags marks the largest-ever contingent of GU student-athletes to qualify for the meet. The preliminary round is being held at Sacramento State's Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calif.
The seven Bulldogs were the seventh-most qualifiers in mid-distance and distance events in the region, and 13th-most in the nation. It also was the most mid-distance and distance qualifiers from a school in Washington.
Athletes who rank among the Top-48 in their respective event earn berths into the NCAA West Preliminary Round. Athletes with the top 12 times or marks at both the East and West Preliminary Round sites qualify for the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., June 6-9.
Pollard, Villarma and Kopczynski run in the men's 1,500 meters Thursday. There will be four heats of 12 runners in the first round in Sacramento. The top five finishers from each heat and the next four fastest times move on to the second round on Saturday. The second round is two heats of 12 runners, the top five finishers from each heat, along with the next two fastest times advance to the national semifinals in Eugene.
Kopczynski and Pollard run in the third heat at 5:45 p.m., while Villarma is in the fourth heat at 5:50 p.m.
Pollard is seeded 27th with a time of 3:44.63. He qualified with that time at the Portland Twilight on May 12. That time ranks second on the GU all-time list. Villarma ran his qualifying time of 3:45.91, which is fourth in program history, at the Oregon Twilight on May 4. The junior is seeded 41st in the event. Kopczynski enters 43rd with a seed time of 3:46.01. The sophomore ran the fifth-fastest time in Gonzaga history at the Portland Twilight.
Fraley, Heffelfinger, Manley and Truax are in the 3,000-meter steeplechase Friday. The quarterfinals feature three heats of 16 runners. The top-three finishers from each heat, plus the next three fastest times to qualify for the semifinals in Eugene.
Manley and Truax are entered in the first heat at 8:20 p.m. Fraley follows in the second heat at 8:33 p.m., and Heffelfinger is in Heat 3 at 8:45.
Manley enters the quarterfinals seeded 17th. He ran the second-fastest time on the GU all-time list, 8:51.26, at the Stanford Invitational on March 30. Manley returns to the NCAA West Preliminary Round for the second time. In 2016 as a sophomore, he placed 12th in his heat, and 31st overall, with a time of 9:13.70 in Lawrence, Kan.
Fraley makes his third appearance in the preliminaries. Prior to his historic run last season, he crossed the line at 9:10.49 in the 2015 West Preliminary in Austin, Texas. He placed 29th in the event, and 10th in the second heat. The then-sophomore entered the race as the 34th seed in the region and 12th in his heat. Now as a senior, he enters the regionals seeded 28th.
Truax is seeded 36th with a time of 8:55.95, while Heffelfinger is 43rd at 8:56.97. They rank third and fourth in program history and are making their first appearances at the West Prelims. Traux ran his qualifier at Stanford, while Heffelfinger ran his personal record at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival.
Live video provided by FloTrack, along with live results, from the NCAA West Preliminary Round will be available on GoZags.com.
