Gonzaga's James Mwaura finishes ninth in NCAA 10000m final & earns Olympic Trials qualifier...

EUGENE--While he missed a scoring position by one place, Gonzaga's James Mwaura (photo courtesy Gonzaga Athletics) set a new school record in the 10000 meters, and assured himself a spot in the US Olympic Trials to highlight the first day of competition at the NCAA Division I track & field championships Wednesday at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.

Mwaura, a product of Tacoma's Lincoln HS, finished ninth in one of the best NCAA 10000 meter races in history, clocking 27:50.44 to finish ninth, and earn himself a second-team All America honor.

More importantly, Mwaura ducked under the US Olympic Trials qualifying mark of 28:00.00, and should get a spot on the line on the meet's first day, Friday June 18th at 7:25pm.

"I can't express how happy I am," Mwaura said after the race. "I hit the trials standard, had a 40-second PR, it just feels amazing. The atmosphere here at the NCAAs is unlike anything else."

The race was physical from the start, Mwaura absorbed a shove right after the gun, but he was composed and ran the race he wanted. The top ten finishers of the race were under the former meet record time of 28:01.30 set by UTEP's Suleiman Nyambui in 1979.

 "I was more patient than any other race I've ever been in," Mwaura said. "I tried to be as patient as possible. If I pushed too early it would have come back to hurt me, but the last two laps were great."

Spokane native John Dressel of Colorado was 12th in the race in 28:03.87.

Washington's Jonah Wilson threw an outdoor season best 64-6.5 (19.67m) to finish eighth in the finals of the men's shot put to get the Huskies on the board.

Wilson got into the finals with a second round throw of 63-9.5 (19.44m) that put him in seventh going into the last three rounds.

After dropping to ninth, Wilson put the shot 64-6.5 (19.67m) to overtake USC's Matthew Katnik for the final scoring spot and first team All-America honors, the first Husky shot putter to reach the podium since Ernie Conwell's fifth place finish in 1996.

Washington State's Colton Johnsen, a native of Bellingham, ran a lifetime best of 8:32.11 to finish sixth in his heat of the 3000 steeplechase and earn a spot in Friday's finals as a time qualifier.

Johnsen's time is 11/100ths of a second short of the US Olympic Trials qualifying mark, but will have an opportunity to get the Olympic Trials mark in Friday's finals.

Washington's Sam Tanner ran a outdoor collegiate personal best Wednesday in the 1500 meters to advance to Friday's final.

In the first of two semifinal heats, the native of New Zealand, who dipped under the 3:35.00 Olympic qualifying standard during the indoor season, stayed out of trouble for most of the race, and moved up in the last 500 meters, clocking 3:38.37 to finish fifth and get the last automatic qualifying spot in the heat, which was won by Notre Dame's Yared Nuguse in 3:37.36.

Tanner's mark eclipses his previous collegiate outdoor personal best of 3:38.58 set at the West Coast Relays at the end of April.

In the other semi, Washington State's Paul Ryan easily finished third in 3:39.12, while teammate Zach Stallings was a non-qualifying eighth in 3:44.08.

Sam Brixey of the Cougars finished sixth in heat 3 of the 110 hurdles, running 13.82. In the 400 hurdles, Cass Elliott of Washington was seventh in heat 2, running 51.86. In the men's hammer final, Washington's Jayden White threw 206-10 (63.04m) to finish 24th.

Former Bothell HS & UW Husky Ryan Croson, now running for Baylor, ran the third leg on their 4 x 400 relay that earned the final time qualifier, as the Bears ran 3:04.95. Croson, who ran the third leg, ran a split of 46.02.

The meet resumes Thursday with the women taking the track as Washington's Katie Rainsberger, who started her collegiate career at Oregon, attempts to earn another All-America honor at Hayward Field, this time in the steeplechase.

Eastern Washington's Morgan Fossen, who started her collegiate career at Eugene's Lane Community College, goes in Thursday's pole vault.

The list of Washington athletes competing the next three days is listed below.

THURSDAY:

Women's Events

3:46 pm – 1500m Semifinals – Madison Heisterman (UW)

4:00 pm - Pole Vault - Chinne Okoronkwo (Texas Tech), Morgan Fossen (East. Wash.)

4:02 pm – 3000m Steeplechase Semifinals – Katie Rainsberger (UW), Olivia Markezich (Notre Dame)

5:30 pm – 400m Hurdles Semifinals – Darhian Mills (UW), Stephanie Cho (WSU)

6:08 pm – 10000m Final – Haley Herberg (UW)

FRIDAY: 

Men's Events, plus heptathlon

Noon - Start of Heptathlon (day 1) - Ida Eikeng & Lyndsey Lopes (UW)

4:30 pm - High Jump - Mitch Jacobson (WSU)

4:35 pm – Discus – Elijah Mason (UW)

5:11 pm – 1500m Final – Sam Tanner (UW), Paul Ryan (WSU)

5:20 pm - Triple Jump - Keshun McGee (Alabama)

6:55 pm – 5000m Final – Isaac Green (UW), James Mwaura (Gonzaga)

7:21 pm - 4 x 400 Relay Finals - Ryan Croson (Baylor)

SATURDAY: 

Women's Events

11:00 am - Start of Heptathlon (day 2) - Ida Eikeng & Lyndsey Lopes (UW)

2:30 pm - High Jump - Suzy Pace (WSU)

3:11 pm – 1500m Final – Madison Heisterman (UW)

3:20 pm - Triple Jump - Charisma Taylor (WSU)

3:24 pm – 3000m Steeplechase Final – Katie Rainsberger (UW), Olivia Markezich (Notre Dame)

4:27 pm – 400m Hurdles Final – Darhian Mills (UW), Stephanie Cho (WSU)

4:43 pm – Heptathlon 800m – Ida Eikeng & Lyndsey Lopes (UW)

4:55 pm – 5000m Final – Haley Herberg (UW)

The live results and time schedule is available here.

NOTE: The NCAA, the USTFCCCA, the University of Oregon, and the sports information offices of the University of Washington, Washington State University, Gonzaga University and Eastern Washington University contributed to this report.

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