Results

University of Montana sophomore Katrina Drennen concluded her record-breaking season Thursday evening, finishing seventh in the second of two heats in the national semifinals of the 1,500 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Only the top five finishers from Drennen’s heat advanced to Saturday’s 1,500 meter finals.

Drennen clocked a time of 4:20.24.

The first of Thursday’s two heats featured a number of surprisingly fast times. Only one athlete – Kansas senior Lauren Bonds – broke 4:16 at either the East or West regional, which were held two weekends ago in Greensboro, N.C., and Austin, Texas.

The top six finishers in the opening heat all broke 4:15 Thursday, with Oregon junior Alex Kosinski posting a 4:15.67 to take seventh.

When heat two finished its first lap in 72 seconds compared to the first heat’s 66-second opening lap, it essentially ensured that the second heat would only send its top five as qualifiers to the final.

At the midway point of the second race, all 12 runners remained bunched, and just over half a second separated first from last.

“The race definitely went out slower than I expected,” Drennen said from the Hayward Field stands two hours after her race. “The opening two laps were slower than I’d run in quite a while. With everyone bunched together and the slower speed, it was hard to find a gap to make any sort of a move.

“We were able to watch the first race on a big-screen TV in the staging area under the stands, so everyone kind of knew at 800 meters that it was only going to be five from our heat advancing.”

With 400 meters to go, Drennen was in ninth but just over a second off the leader when the pack started to break up.

The top five finishers all ran sub-63.5-second final laps to gradually distance themselves from the rest of the field.

Drennen closed with a 64.6-second final lap to move up to seventh, but she couldn’t run down the fifth-place finisher, Villanova sophomore Sheila Reid, who finished in 4:18.34.

“I finally found an opening with 400 to go (when the pack started to break up). With 200 to go I thought I was going to run down fifth, but I didn’t have that final gear.”

Florida State senior Pilar McShine won the heat in a time of 4:16.53. She was followed by Florida senior Charlotte Browning (4:16.77), Oregon freshman Jordan Hasay (4:17.90), UC Riverside senior Brenda Martinez (4:18.17) and Reid.

Stony Brook-SUNY junior Lucy Van Dalen won the opening heat with a time of 4:13.19.

“What I really found helpful today was to have my family, my boyfriend, some of my teammates and some of my former teammates here. That added to the whole experience and definitely made me more relaxed.

“In my mind I wasn’t even nervous. All that support combined to fill me with quiet confidence. When you get to this point, all the preparation is done. It’s time to just enjoy it, and that’s what I did.

“I’m really happy with my race and the entire experience. I’ve got nothing to hang my head about. I’m consistently in the 4:20 range now, and that is something I can really build off of in the future.”