400-Meter Athletes Advance To Quarterfinals

FAYETTEVILLE – The University of Colorado men's track and field team advanced two 400-meter athletes to Friday's quarterfinals here Wednesday in the first day of the NCAA West Preliminaries.
 
Tyler Williams and Aaron McCoy both advanced, Williams in the 400-meter dash and McCoy in the 400-meter hurdles. Both men finished fourth in their heats with Williams running the 20th-best time in the first round at 46.43, while McCoy advanced with the 19th-best time in the hurdles at 51.43 seconds.
 
Both men had to wait a while to find out their fate, having both come in the first heat of six. They were a part of the next six fastest times to advance, and now have a busy Friday with their quarterfinal races and the men's 4x400-meter relay.
 
A third member of the 4x400-meter relay, Garrett Nelson, finished 36th in the 400 hurdles with a time of 52.46 seconds.
 
Two other athletes competed earlier in the day, beginning with Dominique Williams in the men's hammer throw. The grad student finished out his career finishing 41st with a toss of 59.23 meters (194-4). Noah Hibbard finished 31st in the men's 1,500-meter first round in a time of 3:46.97.
 
The night finished out with the men's 10,000-meter semifinal with four Buffs seeking a top-12 finish to advance to Eugene. The race started well with Austin Vancil in fifth followed by Charlie Sweeney in the top-12. Through the first 2,000 meters, Vancil moved up to second with Sweeney in sixth while Andrew Kent and Paxton Smith sat 44th and 45th separated by four seconds from their teammates.
 
Halfway through the race, things stayed similar except Andrew Kent making his move up to 35th. Through 6,000-meters, Vancil had fallen back to 20th while Sweeney sat 11th, Kent 31st and Smith 39th.
 
Kent was on a charge to the top in 18th when an athlete fell at the 25-minute mark, taking out Kent and a number of athletes as the chase pack was removed from the equation. The lead pack of 13 had a comfortable 100-meter gap after the fall.
 
The Buffs were unable to recover as Vancil finished 19th in 29:13.46 with Sweeney right behind in 20th at 29:14.26. Kent could not recover from the fall and finished 30th in 29:33.69, while Smith finished out his CU career 43rd in 29:58.42.
 
The CU women take over tomorrow beginning with Avery McMullen in the 100-meter hurdles and long jump. Micaela DeGenero and Rachel McArthur will then compete in the 1,500-meter run first round before Abbey Glynn and Emma Pollak compete in the 400-meter hurdles. The evening ends with the women's 10,000-meter run where Emily Covert, India Johnson, Hannah Miniutti and Kaitlyn Barthell will all look to finish in the top-12 and advance to the NCAA Championships.
 
CU ALUMNI NOTE
Colorado will have four alums competing at the USATF 10,000 Championships Friday evening in Eugene. Olympian Joe Klecker will look to continue his USA career for the men while Makena Morley, Carrie Verdon and Maddie Alm will all compete on the women's side. The top-three finishers that all have the World Athletics standard will compete for Team USA at the 2022 World Track and Field Championships in July in Eugene. Klecker already has the needed standard to compete at the World Championships.