FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Gonzaga's Wil Smith and Bryce Cerkowniak placed 21^st and 26^th in the 10,000-meter semifinal at the NCAA West Preliminary Round at John McDonnell Field at the University of Arkansas Wednesday.
 
In his second straight appearance at the prelims, Smith crossed the line at 29:34.18, while Cerkowniak's time was 29:41.46. Smith entered the race seeded fourth after running the program's second-fastest time, 28:04.77, at the Stanford Invitational on March 29. Cerkowniak ran the third-fastest time in GU history, 28:45.00, also at the Stanford Invite. He was seeded 33^rd entering Wednesday's race.
 
The top 12 times advanced to the national final in Eugene, Ore., June 5-8. Habtom Samuel of New Mexico placed first in the semifinals at 28:26.91. Cal Baptist's Valentin Soca was 12^th with a time of 28:58.67.
 
Cerkowniak and Smith will run in the 5,000-meter national semifinal Friday at 6:10 p.m. Pacific Time.
 
Alicia Anderson opens the NCAA West Preliminaries for the Zag women in the first round of the 1,500 meters Thursday at 1:30 p.m. PT. Kristen Garcia and Rosina Machu follow in the 10,000-meter semifinal at 6:10 p.m.
 
The races will be broadcast live on ESPN Plus, with live results on GoZags.com.