Bradley University Athletics

Bradley Opens NCAA West Preliminary Wednesday

Kevin Gunawan

Track & Field 5/25/2021 1:00:00 PM

NCAA West Preliminary Links
Meet Info & Results	Live Results \| Schedule
Watch	Wednesday \| Thursday \| Friday \| Saturday
Heat Sheets	Men \| Women
Meet Coverage	Twitter: @BradleyXCTrack \| Instagram: @bradley_xc_track

A school-record seven Braves are set to compete at the NCAA West Preliminary, starting on Wednesday on the campus of Texas A&M.

QUALIFIERS
The Braves tied a school record with seven qualifiers for the NCAA Championship, matching the mark originally set in 2016.

Three men earned invitations – Alec Hartman and Scott Seymour in the 800m run and Evan Mitchell in the 3,000m steeplechase.

Four freshman women also qualified in their first year on the track. Tiana LoStracco, Julia Nielsen and Wilma Nielsen are set to compete in the 800m run, while Sophia McDonnell makes her debut in the 3,000m steeplechase.

MEET INFO
The action begins on Wednesday (men) and Thursday (women) night with the first round of the 800m run. The event begins at 7:50 p.m. each night with the running of six heats. The top three finishers of each section (eight runners) plus the next top six times advance to the quarterfinals – set for Friday (men) and Saturday (women) at 7:35 p.m. Then, the top three runners from each of three heats plus the next three highest times advance to the NCAA Semifinals in Eugene, Oregon.

The 3,000m steeplechase quarterfinals will be contested on Friday (men) and Saturday (women) at 6:10 p.m. The 48 runners are split into three sections of 16 with the top three from each heat plus the next three best times advancing to the semifinals in Oregon.

PRELIMINARY HISTORY
Only two of the seven Braves have previously qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary – Hartman in both 2018 and 2019 with Seymour joining him in 2019 the last time the championship was held.

Hartman advanced to the quarterfinals during both his freshman and sophomore campaigns. In 2018, he crossed the finish line first in his first-round heat before finishing 20th overall in the quarterfinals. He then followed up the next year by placing second in his first-round heat to advance before placing 14th overall in the quarterfinals.

Seymour placed 39th two years ago in his NCAA Championship debut.

Daniel Gagne was the last Brave to advance to the NCAA Championship rounds in Oregon, qualifying in the 1,500m in 2017. Kristen Busch was the last member of the women's program to advance, doing so in the 10,000m run in 2016.

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