Colorado Qualifies Four to Nationals in First Day

Thursday, May 23

Sacramento, Calif.

All Day

Colorado

NCAA Preliminaries

Photo by: Chris Hook

May 24, 2019 | Track and Field

Live Results Championship Homepage 2019 NCAA West Preliminaries Notes

Six move on to finals

By: Shaun Wicen, Assistant SID

SACRAMENTO – It was a busy day in Sacramento for Colorado's track and field program, but the final event of the day qualified four Buffaloes to the NCAA National Championships in the 10,000-meter run.

The women were the first up for 25 laps of racing, and it was Kaitlyn Benner and Makena Morley that persevered. The two stuck with the lead pack of 11 women a majority of the race until the leader decided to leave the pack in the final 1,600 meters. Eight women remained in the chase pack, allowing Benner and Morley to stick with it to do just enough to qualify to nationals. The two crossed the finish line side-by-side in 33:40.70 and 33:44.72 with Benner placing eighth and Morley ninth.

Next up were the men where John Dressel and Ryan Forsyth found themselves in a much larger group than the women faced. With seven laps to go Dressel was right behind the leader in an enormous pack of half of the field of 48 athletes. Forsyth remained in the top-12 through to 1,600 meters left when Forsyth moved up to 10^th and Dressel moved right behind him. BYU athletes pushed the pace and it wasn't until the start of the final lap that a clear qualifying group formed as seven athletes fell off the final pack of 13. Dressel and Forsyth found themselves near the back of the pack with 100 meters left but another athlete had fallen off pace in the backstretch, allowing the Buffs to cruise in to the qualifying spots. Dressel finished ninth in 29:00.98 and Forsyth finished 12^th in 29:03.07. Both men ran personal bests in the race.

The four 10,000 runners that qualified will all have tomorrow off but will return Saturday evening for the finals of the 5,000.

The very first event on the track for Colorado produced the highest qualifying times with Gabby Scott and Eriana Henderson moving onto the next round in the women's 400 hurdles. Scott ran 57.79 seconds on her way to a win in the fifth heat and the third-fastest time of the day. Henderson ran a new personal best of 58.42 seconds and automatically qualified for finals after finishing second in the second heat. She has the 11^th-best time going into the 12-person final. Henderson's time moves her to third in school history in the event.

Another CU athlete that qualified with a huge personal best was Karina Mann in the women's 1,500. Mann held onto the fastest heat of the day to run 4:16.89, nearly seven seconds faster than her previous best race. She finished fourth in the heat, a heat that featured five of the six fastest times run in the event. Mann will run in the finals Saturday with the fifth-best mark.

In the women's 800, Elissa Mann joined her sister in qualifying after running 2:06.28. Mann jumped out and led for a majority of her heat but allowed the pack to catch her in the final 10 meters. Despite barely missing an automatic qualifying mark, Mann had the fastest non-auto time and will be the eighth-seed entering finals.

Two CU men qualified for finals today, Eduardo Herrera in the men's 1,500 and Jon Maas in the 400. Herrera led the final heat of the men's 1,500 for 800 meters in an attempt to slow down the heat as Gabe Fendel was in the final qualifying spot at 3:46.61. Despite his best efforts the race picked up pace and Herrera battled to the final qualifying spot by edging Brandon Pollard of Gonzaga by two-hundredths of a second with a time of 3:45.20. Fendel fell from the final qualifying spot to 24^th after 10 of the 12 runners in the final heat ran faster.

Maas took full advantage of the top-three finishers in each heat moving onto finals as he ran just the 33^rd-fastest time but goes to finals after finishing third in the second heat. He ran 47.47, a full half of a second slower than the run that qualified 23^rd overall.

The CU women had five others compete today. Annie Hill finished 29^th in the 1,500 with a time of 4:23.66, while Tabor Scholl finished 18^th in the 10,000 at 34:23.83. Valerie Welch ran 1:00.47 to finished 30^th in the 400 hurdles, while Kylee Harr finished 44^th in the high jump and Elisa Grandemange closed out her career throwing 57.79 meters (189-7) for the 31^st spot in the women's hammer throw.

For the CU men, Aaron McCoy finished just two positions out of qualifying for finals after he ran 51.72 seconds for 26^th. McCoy actually ran faster than the slowest automatic qualifier but missed the final non-auto spot by four-tenths of a second.

Tomorrow action begins with Maas looking to finish in the top-12 in the men's 400 finals at 6:45 p.m. (MT). Elissa Mann and the 400 hurdle women will also compete in finals before Val Constien takes to the track in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase final at 9:20 p.m.

	2019 NCAA WEST PRELIMINARIES
DAY/TIME (MT)	EVENT	ATHLETE	RESULT	PLACE
Thursday
4:30 PM	Women's High Jump	Kylee Harr	NH	T44th
5:00 PM	Women's Hammer Throw	Elisa Grandemange	57.79m (189-7)	31st
5:30 PM	Women's 400 Hurdle Prelims	Gabby Scott	57.79	3rd (Q)
		Eriana Henderson	58.42	11th (Q)
		Valerie Welch	1:00.47	30th
6:00 PM	Men's 400 Hurdle Prelims	Aaron McCoy	51.72	26th
6:30 PM	Women's 1500 Prelims	Annie Hill	4:23.66	29th
		Karina Mann	4:16.89	5th (Q)
7:00 PM	Men's 1500 Prelims	Gabe Fendel	3:46.61	24th
		Eduardo Herrera	3:45.20	12th (Q)
8:45 PM	Men's 400 Prelims	Jon Maas	47.47	33rd (Q)
9:10 PM	Women's 800 Prelims	Elissa Mann	2:06.28	8th (q)
10:00 PM	Women's 10,000 Final	Makena Morley	33:44.72	9th
		Kaitlyn Benner	33:44.70	8th
		Tabor Scholl	34:23.83	18th
10:40 PM	Men's 10,000 Final	John Dressel	29:00.98	9th
		Ryan Forsyth	29:03.07	12th
Friday
6:45 PM	Men's 400 Finals	Jon Maas	47.09	22nd
7:30 PM	Women's 800 Finals	Elissa Mann	2:05.40	15th
8:00 PM	Women's 400 Hurdle Finals	Gabby Scott	56.51	2nd (Q)
		Eriana Henderson	57.67	13th
9:20 PM	Women's 3000 Steeplechase Final	Val Constien	9:44.51	(Q)
Saturday
5:00 PM	Men's High Jump	Jeremy Cody
7:30 PM	Women's 1500 Final	Karina Mann
7:45 PM	Men's 1500 Final	Eduardo Herrera
9:05 PM	Women's 5000 Final	Dani Jones
		Makena Morley
		Tabor Scholl
		Kaitlyn Benner
9:45 PM	Men's 5000 Final	John Dressel
		Ryan Forsyth
		Ethan Gonzales
10:25 PM	Women's 4x400 Final	Welch, Johnson, Scott, Henderson
10:45 PM	Men's 4x400 Final	Maas, Smith, Hoy, Monestime, McCoy, McClurkin Jr.