Austin, Texas – Oregon State’s Sam McKinnon battled misfortune on Friday and did not advance to the NCAA Championships in the 3,000-meter steeplechase on at the Division I West Preliminary meet in Austin.

OSU’s school record-holder in the event crashed to the track after hitting the second barrier in the first lap. However, she got back up and placed eighth in her 16-runner heat in 10:33.02 to place 21^st in the 48-runner field.

“She still got up and raced incredibly,” OSU coach Kelly Sullivan said of the talented freshman, who set the school record of 10:25.77 when she placed fourth at the Pacific-12 Conference championships on May 16 in just her second collegiate steeple.

“She probably would have run a lot faster,” if not for the fall, Sullivan added.

The 48 runners competed in three 16-women heats, with the top 12 placers advancing to the June 10-13 NCAA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene. The top three finishers in each heat, and the next three best times, qualified.

McKinnon was the first freshman, and ninth runner overall, among the 38 non-qualifiers. She placed second among the six freshmen in the race, trailing only Pac-12 champion Eric Clark of Colorado, who took sixth in 9:59.67.

A graduate of Mountain View High School in Meridian, Idaho, McKinnon first set the school record (10:30.81) at the High Performance Meet on May 1 in her initial college steeple. She then lowered that mark by more than six seconds at the Pac-12 meet two weeks later.

McKinnon’s race concluded OSU’s season. OSU’s other regional qualifier, redshirt sophomore Morgan Anderson, took 28^th in the 1,500-meter preliminaries on Thursday and did not advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals.

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