May 27, 2011

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EUGENE, Ore. -- Survive and advance? The ideas were one and the same for Maverick Darling on Thursday at the 2011 NCAA West Preliminary Round.

The path from the prelims to the NCAA championships is as clear in the 10,000 meters as it is in any other event to be contested at the three-day meet in Eugene, Ore. While, mathematically, the formula is simple -- 48 men toe the line looking to place among the 12 that will advance -- navigating through the massive pack was anything but.

Still, Darling kept himself in position throughout the 25-lap race and responded with a surge when the leaders picked up the pace down the stretch. The late charge kept Darling in the front pack and secured a 10th-place finish in 29 minutes, 17.56 seconds.

That has the sophomore heading to his first NCAA outdoor championships two weeks from now in Des Moines, Iowa.

There, Darling will be look to replicate the success of his first NCAA indoor meet in March, when he earned All-America honors with a seventh-place finish in the 5,000 meters.

His teammate, Elliot Krause, came up on the short end of the difficult, one-race qualifying procedure -- missing a spot in the national meet by two spots with his 14th-place finish in 29:24.58.

Still, three other Badgers kept themselves in contention for an NCAA championships berth with performances on the opening day of the preliminary round.

UW went 3-for-3 in the first round of the 1,500 meters, advancing sophomore Rob Finnerty, senior Luke Rucks and redshirt freshman Zachary Mellon through to Saturday's quarterfinals.

Finnerty and Rucks had the benefit of running in the fourth and final heat of the 1,500, with Finnerty taking fourth in the section in 3:46.73 to easily transfer through.

Rucks, however, made a dramatic entrance to the quarterfinals by diving across the line after making contact with Oklahoma's Robert Sorrell in the final steps of the race. His time of 3:47.23 stacked up 14th-fastest, but it would not have been enough to advance had Rucks not held on to fifth place and the automatic advancement attached to a top-five finish.

Mellon's heat was much slower, but his fourth-place showing in the section was good for an automatic berth to the quarterfinals despite his time of 3:48.64.

Among the athletes that didn't advance Thursday, few could say they came as close as Patrick Plank. The junior, making his NCAA postseason debut, laid down a lifetime-best performance of 52.16 in the first round of the 400-meter hurdles but fell four one-hundredths of a second shy of moving on.

A total of 24 athletes moved on to the quarterfinals, with Plank standing at No. 25.

Junior Kyle Jefferson also was unable to advance out of the first round of the 400 meters, running a time of 47.93. The same went for senior Zach Beth in the 800 meters, where the indoor All-American recorded a time of 1:51.75.

The duo of senior Robert Dehn and junior Derek Steinbach also saw their seasons come to a close in the javelin. With 12 athletes advancing to Des Moines, Dehn placed 21st overall at 207 feet, 9 inches, while Steinbach was 27th at 200-11.

Also in the field events, junior Mickey DeFilippo went out of the pole vault after clearing the bar at 16-6 3/4 and finished in a tie for 19th place. Freshman Dan Block failed to post a legal throw in the shot put and did not place.

The second day of the 2011 NCAA West Preliminary Round is a light one for the Badgers, with junior Paul Annear in the high jump at 5:45 p.m. (CT) and sophomore Drew Shields and freshman Alex Brill racing in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 9:20 p.m.