June 12, 2009
Fayetteville, Ark. - The NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships continued on Friday with a pair of Stanford men excelling in the 5,000 meters. Chris Derrick and Elliott Heath each earned All-America honors to lead the Cardinal.
The Stanford men's distance program appears in great shape after Derrick placed third and Heath fifth to each earn All-America honors. It was the fourth All-America honor for Derrick who completes a phenomenal freshman season with All-America honors in cross country, the 3,000 and 5,000 meters indoors and now the 5k outdoors. His time of 14:07.34 trailed the NCAA champion, Galen Rupp of Oregon, who ran 14:04.12.
Derrick pushed the pace for much of the race, but eventually was overcome by Rupp, now a six-time NCAA Champion and a U.S. Olympian in Beijing.
Heath, just a sophomore, also hung with the leaders to eventually finish fifth with a time of 14:08.56. It is the second All-America honor for Heath, who also earned one indoors in the 3,000 meters.
The duo of Stanford underclassmen fared well just a day after Jake Riley, also a sophomore, placed eighth in the 10,000 meters, to give the Cardinal a trio of returning All-Americans in the distances.
In addition to the distances, Myles Bradley advanced to the final of the 110-meter hurdles. Bradley placed fourth in his heat with a time of 13.82. Bradley will be the eighth seed in Saturday's final.
The men currently have 11 team points to sit in a tie for 12th place with several finals to be contested on Saturday. Oregon leads the meet with 31 points.
The lone female to compete on Friday was Whitney Liehr in the prelims of the triple jump. Liehr placed 12th overall to advance to Saturday's final with a mark of 42-6 ¼.
Saturday will mark the final day of the NCAA Championships as Stanford will continue to compete for individual national titles. Lauren Centrowitz and Garrett Heath will take aim at the NCAA title in the 1,500 meters, while Liehr in the triple jump and Bradley in the high hurdles also will be looking for strong results. Additionally, Daniel Schaerer should be in contention for the title in the discus.