Two down, two to go.
At least, that’s how Oregon’s Michael McGrath looks at it. After finishing a qualifying fifth in the men’s 1,500m Saturday afternoon in a time of three minutes, 46.31 seconds, the Duck junior said he was just looking at the weekend’s NCAA West Regional Championships as preliminary rounds of the big meet, the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif., June 6-9.
“We kinda figured there’s four rounds to nationals and (I) definitely just advanced to now, the semifinals of nationals,” McGrath said.
McGrath, who finished fourth at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, his first race since the Oregon Preview meet in March, said he feels much better now than he did two weeks ago.
“I’m stronger today than I was at Pac-10s, and certainly at Pac-10s I was stronger than I was two weeks before that,” McGrath said. “I don’t expect to be any weaker going into nationals, only stronger.”
McGrath has dealt with nagging injuries for most of the season and said he feels like he is just now starting to hit his stride.
“Four weeks ago it was an uphill battle to think I’d qualify, but I definitely believed I would,” he said. “I’m very optimistic about what I can do in the coming weeks.”
Director of Track and Field Vin Lananna agreed.
“He’s been injured a good part of the season and I think he’s on a roll,” Lananna said. “He looks fresh, he looks good. Every day it’s better and better.”
It’s certainly a better result for McGrath than what happened at the regional meet a year ago. After finishing in the top five and thinking he was going to be competing at the national championships, McGrath found out after the meet that he had been disqualified.
This time, there was no such misfortune.
After jumping out to the front of the pack at the beginning, McGrath settled back into the crowd for much of the race, biding his time. But with a lap to go, he was stuck in traffic against the inside rail, unable to free himself for the finish.
“That’s kinda like the story of my racing life. I’m always boxed in because of my own stupid mistakes,” he said. “I need to get used to moving outside.”
He was able to break out with about 300 meters to go and get in qualifying position. Coming off the Bowerman Curve, he was within striking distance of third-place finisher Garrett Heath of Stanford (3:46.15) and fourth-place finisher Phillip Reid of Cal Poly (3:46.27), but was unable to catch either and had to settle for fifth. Northern Arizona sophomore Lopez Lomong, the NCAA indoor champion at 3,000 meters, won the race in 3:44.18.
McGrath’s teammate, freshman A.J. Acosta, struggled, finishing ninth in 3:48.43. He will have to wait to see if his season-best time of 3:42.40 is enough to get him an at-large bid to go to Sacramento.
“It’s my understanding that he has a good shot to get in,” McGrath said. “I hope he’s there. We’ve done a lot of good work together.”
Lananna also said he thought Acosta will be invited.
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