NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships West Preliminary Round 2013

OSU Cowboys, Arkansas Mid-D, and Hasay on the Outside Looking In

May 23, 2013 by Mitch Kastoff

It’s nice to be back to the old NCAA qualifying system. Some coaches hated the Sweet 16 and others, well, pretty much everyone hated it. But we here at Flotrack loved the unforgiving system because it provided that wild excitement (or disappointment for some DMR teams) that went until the eleventh hour.

Just in case you forgot how it works, here’s the new slash old format. The top forty-eight individuals in each event earn berths to the east and west preliminary rounds, respectively. The top twelve times or marks in each region then make it to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, OR on June 5 - 8th.

Twenty-four relays qualify in each region with twelve making nationals while the decathlon is just a descending list of the top twenty-four marks because apparently the NCAA isn’t totally sadistic.

That’s the nuts and bolts. Now let’s get down to the good stuff: Who will make it out of the east and west.

Barring disaster, some of the events look like locks. Then again, Murphy’s Law never applies to track and field. But if you look beyond those coveted dozen spots, there are some athletes who are currently on the outside looking in. They might be there on paper, but after this weekend, some of them will be booking their flight to Oregon.

Since twelve qualify from each region, we’ll list twelve events that don’t look as good on paper because if one thing is for certain, it’s that nothing is for certain. We've listed the athlete, his or her rank in the region, and their qualifying mark below.

- TrackBoundUSA asks, "Which Region is Stronger?"

West Regional Preview | East Regional Preview

Edit: When was the last time someone listened to a Jordan Pruitt song? Serious question.

West

Men

1500M
#17 Rob Finnerty Wisconsin 3:43.06
#29 Raul Botezan Oklahoma State 3:44.59
#31 Austin Mudd Wisconsin 3:44.96

Here’s few guys with championship experience who’ll have to step it up this weekend. Finnerty took 5th at nationals last year (3:44.53), Botezan qualified indoors in the mile (DNF) and DMR (6th), but the one to watch is Mudd. The converted 800m man took third indoors (3:57.93) and has run one 1500m this outdoor season at the Wisconsin Open (3:44.96).

Championship experience, nasty finishing speed, and what could be a tactical race in the West Region? Yes, please.

5000m
#18 Kirubel Erassa Oklahoma State
#22 Thomas Farrell Oklahoma State
#23 Jeramy Elkaim Oregon

A few more locks who have left it late. Erassa may not have made it out of the west region last year, but after running 7:49.17 and taking third at indoor nationals, we’ll be surprised if he misses out. Erassa’s qualifying time comes from his first place finish at the Big 12 Championships and his teammate who took third is also on our list (Note: Girma Mecheso took second, but we think he’ll concentrate on the 10k).

We’ll leave out the fluff and just say that Farrell (13:15.31 personal best) isn’t going to miss out either.

The third "maybe" on our list is Oregon’s Jeramy Elkaim. The redshirt freshman may have been a member of Oregon’s sub-4 club indoors, but lest we forget, he ran 13:39.35 indoors at the Husky Classic. However, taking ninth in a kicker’s race at the Pac-12 5k is a bit concerning.

10000m
#29 Elliot Krause Wisconsin

After coming off a huge 5k personal best (13:34.30 at Mt. SAC), Krause took fourth in a fast-closing 10k at the Big 10 Championships. That’s where he got his qualifying mark of 29:35.17, but we’re not one to judge the Badgers on paper. With a lifetime of 28:43.34 from two years ago, this won’t be the last we see of him.

Honorable Mention

3kST
#4 Aric VanHalen Colorado 8:41.73
#13 Blake Theroux Colorado 8:49.99
#15 Hugh Dowdy 8:50.75

How are there so many Buffaloes in the steeple? This kind of depth and success could only be attributed to something that has to be incredible, like having 3000m steeplechase Olympians on staff and on the track.

While Van Halen is a lock, we think that Theroux and Dowdy will go through. After looking at this and doing a whole bunch of research on incoming freshman Ben Saarel, we can’t wait for cross country.

There's also this thing of beauty, courtesy ot Texas' Kyle Merber.

Our favorite.

800m
#4 Leoman Momah Arkansas 1:47.74
#5 Ryan Thomas Arkansas 1:48.35
#23 Anthony Lieghio Arkansas 1:49.35
#25 Patrick Rono Arkansas 1:49.59
#30 Tomas Squella Arkansas 1:49.62

Speaking of depth, we meet again, the Arkansas mid-d squad. Indoors, they qualified a silly amount (four) in the 800m and they’re back for outdoors. Well, sort of.

The four in question is Momah (#1 seed indoors), Squella (#3), Rono (#8), and Lieghio (#14). While Momah is back near the top, the rest are outside of the automatic spots. It’s interesting that while the freshman Squella has dropped to thirtieth, it’s another Razorback freshman who’s at the top.

Ryan Thomas popped a big one at the Oregon / Arkansas Dual, but has been going backwards ever since. We’ll see if he can rebound this weekend.

As for the rest of the Razorbacks, some of them left it to the last weekend to run their qualifier for indoor nationals. Thanks for making us sweat, guys.

400m
#2 Deon Lendore Texas A&M 45.00
#27 Ricky Babineux Texas A&M 46.71
#28 Carlyle Roudette Texas A&M 46.73

Lendore looks for redemption, but he’ll be up against USC’s Bryshon Nellum (looking for his first NCAA title) and Oregon’s Mike Berry (looking to stake his claim after running in the slow heat indoors). We wish that there were more Aggies in the 400m, but it’s been an off year for A&M.

Women

200m
#14 Chalonda Goodman Texas 23.31

We put the Texas senior on this list because she’s oh-so-close in two events. Right now, she’s ranked 15th in the 100m and 14th in the 200m. Not to mention that the west regional is on her home track, so there might be some Longhorn magic in the air.

We know she’s capable of more as she clocked 22.85 for 200m last year.

800m
#11 Baylee Mires Washington 2:05.99
#19 Annie Leblanc Oregon 2:07.12
N/A Regina George 2:03.79

This is the only event that doesn’t follow our rules, but there are some interesting tidbits, so we included it anyway.

Washington’s Baylee Mires is actually on the inside looking... in(?) and we hope it stays that way. How many athletes would call their coach and ask to be put in the fast heat at an elite meet? Mires, that’s who.

We like the youthful confidence and want to see her do the same thing at either an NCAA regional or national meet.

The Huskies elected to try and qualify their DMR indoors, but they too missed out on the fun. That means that Mires didn’t run indoor nationals, so hopefully she makes it here.

Another young gun is Oregon’s freshman, Annie LeBlanc. While she’s run a whole bunch of 2:07 - 2:09 eight hundos all year, we never like to count out the talented. Last summer, she ran 2:03.41, which is serious business for a girl who has three more seasons of eligibility and is training with one of the best middle-distance squads in the county.

Our last pick is actually a non-entrant, but a man can dream, can’t he? Arkansas’ 400m superstar Regina George dabbled in the 800m this outdoor season, running 2:03.79 open and split 2:02.x (?) on the SMR at Texas Relays.

We wondered if she was going to make the step up to the 800m for the nationals? After recording the fastest split of any competitor in the USA vs. The World 4x400 (49.5), she’ll be sticking to the 400m.

5000m
#13 Jordan Hasay Oregon 16:01.54
#18 Sara Sutherland Texas 16:11.52

Hasay’s basically split this in her 10k at Payton Jordan. Nothing witty needs to be included here.

For the second season in a row, Texas’ Sara Sutherland is leaving qualifying for nationals to the last day. Indoors, we saw Sutherland come up clutch and run a Sweet 16 time of 15:52.99. She went on to improve her mark and run a personal best of 15:50.04 at nationals, where she placed eighth.

This season could be more of the same. Before Alex Wilson, Sutherland’s seasonal best was 16:12.02. As she enters the west regional (on her home track, too), Sutherland has run “just” 16:11.52 in a tough race at Mt. SAC.

Can she come up in the clutch two seasons in a row?