Last year, 17 qualifiers made the 5k and 10k fields in San Angelo. As of May 5, the defending champ in both events -- Daniel Kirwa of Harding -- is 17th in the 5,000. Kirwa ran the 10,000 at Mt. SAC, but didn't run at Drake (for obvious reasons). The Bison have no more meets on their schedule, as the Gulf South Conference doesn't appear to sanction a conference meet.
Although the NCAA sets minimum fields at 16, Kirwa might get through on a provision that allows the next-fastest competitor "if that student-athlete has been accepted into the meet in another event."
And the likely candidates to pass him either run conference meets at altitude (Brandon Birdsong of Adams State, Sean Brown of Western State) or in iffy spring weather (James Krasja of Mankato State, Angus MacDonald of Mass.-Lowell).
But if he isn't in the 5,000 at Charlotte, look out in the 10!
Kirwa will go to nationals in both the 10k and 5k and probably win them both. At least one person, maybe two, ranked ahead of him in the 5k will not declare for nationals since the 1500-5k double is not a good bet, look at how braun did last year. If he can't handle it well then no one in dII can
ReplyDeleteyeah. it had better be two not running, because Cruz of Adams just ran 14:07.
ReplyDeleteI'd still watch out for the 5k at the RMAC championships. Pueblo is 4,692 ft in elevation,which is not that high for almost all of the participating schools.
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