Men Closeout Championships on High Note

AUSTIN, Texas – The 2019 NCAA National Championships is over for the Colorado men's track and field program, finishing the final day with a pair of second team All-Americans.

Both Eduardo Herrera and John Dressel secured second team All-American honors after finishing between ninth and 16^th in their events. That is Dressel's second honor of the meet after he and Ryan Forsyth had top-16 finishes in the 10,000.

Herrera kicked things off in the final of the 1,500-meter run. The sophomore settled into eighth in the first 300, crossing the first quarter in 58 seconds. The pace slowed down as the 12 runners crossed the 800 mark in 2:01. Herrera held onto an All-American finishing position for another 100 meters before the pace began to quicken again. He dropped back to 11^th with 500 meters left and finished the race in 3:46.27 for 12^th overall.

It was an incredible month for Herrera. The sophomore didn't know if he was going to be accepted into the NCAA West Preliminaries but made it in after being in the 60s in the descending order list after athletes scratched. Herrera qualified into the finals at the Prelims and then had a show where he came off the curve and cut down the field for a second-place finish that sent him to nationals. After he ran the seventh-best time in the second heat that was faster than the entire first heat, Herrera went from not knowing if his season was over to second team All-American.

Dressel jumped on the track in the 5,000 to complete the double after competing in the 10,000 on Wednesday night. He settled into the top-12 athletes in the first 1600 as the pace remained slower and the entire field remained in contention for the next mile.

With just three laps left, Dressel made his move as he moved ahead of five runners to the top-four. The indoor national champion, Morgan McDonald of Wisconsin, took the lead and had Stanford's Grant Fischer, UCLA's Robert Brandt and Dressel on his heels. The pack began to catch the move as Dressel fell to eighth with two laps remaining. At the bell it ended into a sprint with McDonald dropping a 53-second final lap to take the title as Dressel finished in 14:18.03 for 14^th.

The heptathlon duo of Maja Wichhart-Donzo and Michaela Wenning started off the day early in the after in 92 degree heat. The women ran together in the only heat of the 100 hurdles with a headwind, running 14.21 for Wichhart-Donzo and 14.35 for Wenning. The two women were ranked 18^th and 20^th following the first event.

Shortly later, both women competed in the high jump on different mats. The women each cleared 1.66 meters (5-5.5) and kept their position in the competition. In the shot put Wenning threw 11.51m (37-9.25) for the 16^th-best toss in the competition but remained in 20^th. Wichhart-Donzo threw 11.22m (36-9.75) and dropped one spot to 19^th overall through three events.

The 200 ended up a dramatic ending after beginning nearly three and a half hours after the shot put. Wichhart-Donzo ran a 24.56 in her heat and looked to jump to 17^th, while Wenning ran 26.02 to drop to 24^th. After the event seemed concluded it was determined that Wichhart-Donzo had stepped outside her lane and was disqualified from the 200, dropping to 24^th while Wenning moved to 23^rd.

Wenning sits 340 points behind the final first team All-American finish and will have a large try at it with the javelin, long jump and 800 remaining. Wichhart-Donzo, missing out on nearly 930 points, is 1,000 points out from a second team All-American honor with the heartbreaking disqualification.

Tomorrow the heptathletes will finish their competition with the long jump and javelin between noon and 2 p.m. They finish later in the evening at 6 p.m. in the 800-meter run. Just before that 800, Val Constien will compete in the finals of the steeplechase at 4:54 p.m. (MT), followed by Gabby Scott's chase to a national championship in the 400 hurdles at 5:57 p.m. Shortly after the heptathlon conclusion, Dani Jones and Makena Morley close out the championships in the 5,000 at 6:25 p.m.

All four days of coverage will be on ESPN with running events on ESPN 2 Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Friday's coverage will be ESPN, while all field events are available to stream on ESPN 3. For a complete schedule of coverage, click here.

	2019 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS
WEDNESDAY	ESPN 2			RESULT	PLACE
5:46 PM	Men's 1,500 Prelims	Eduardo Herrera	Heat 2	3:44.78	7th (q)
8:08 PM	Men's 10,000 Finals	John Dressel	Finals	29:32.38	10th
	Men's 10,000 Finals	Ryan Forsyth	Finals	29:47.90	12th

THURSDAY	ESPN 2			RESULT	PLACE
6:36 PM	Women's Steeplechase Prelims	Val Constien	Heat 2	9:52.04	6th (Q)
8:00 PM	Women's 400 Hurdle Prelims	Gabby Scott	Heat 3	57.50	10th (Q)
8:38 PM	Women's 10,000 Finals	Makena Morley	Finals	33:39.27	11th
	Women's 10,000 Finals	Kaitlyn Benner	Finals	34:06.39	16th
9:18 PM	Women's 4x400 Prelim	Welch, Henderson, Johnson, Scott	Heat 1	3:29.25	24th

FRIDAY	ESPN			RESULT	PLACE
6:41 PM	Men's 1,500 Finals	Eduardo Herrera	Finals	3:46.27	12th
8:25 PM	Men's 5,000 Finals	John Dressel	Finals	14:18.03	14th

SATURDAY	ESPN 2			RESULT	PLACE
4:54 PM	Women's Steeplechase Finals	Val Constien	Finals
5:57 PM	Women's 400 Hurdles Finals	Gabby Scott	Finals
6:25 PM	Women's 5,000 Finals	Dani Jones	Finals
	Women's 5,000 Finals	Makena Morley	Finals

	HEPTATHLON RESULTS
		Maja Wichhart-Donzo		Michaela Wenning
FRIDAY	ESPN 3	RESULTS (SCORE)	PLACE	RESULTS (SCORE)	PLACE
1:30 PM	100m Hurdles	14.21 (949)	18th	14.35 (929)	20th
2:30 PM	High Jump	1.66m (806)	18th	1.66m (806)	20th
4:30 PM	Shot Put	11.22m (610)	19th	11.51m (629)	20th
8:13 PM	200m Dash	24.56 (928)	17th	26.02 (795)	24th
		3293 points		3159 points
SATURDAY	ESPN 3	RESULTS (SCORE)	PLACE	RESULTS (SCORE)	PLACE
12:30 PM	Long Jump
1:45 PM	Javelin Throw
6:13 PM	800m Run

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Kaitlyn Benner

John Dressel

Ryan Forsyth

Eduardo Herrera

Dani Jones

Makena Morley

Gabby Scott

Michaela Wenning

Maja Wichhart-Donzo