SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Redshirt freshman Harry Ewing narrowly missed qualifying for the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase on Friday, taking 15^th place overall as only 12 runners advanced to the national championships.

"Harry put himself in there and made good moves when he needed to and fought to the finish," UW assistant coach Scott Dahlberg said Friday. "I'm proud of him. It was a strong competition. It was a good temperature with no wind. Every heat went out at a very honest pace. A lot of guys were running personal bests. That doesn't usually happen at this meet."
 
Ewing clocked a time of 8 minutes, 46.81 seconds at the NCAA West Preliminary Round Friday night, jumping from No. 8 to No. 4 on the UW all-time list for the event. The Hamilton, New Zealand native chopped almost six seconds off his personal best, finishing fifth in his heat. The top three finishers from each heat, along with the next three best times overall, advanced to Eugene, Ore., for the national championship meet.
 
Ewing crossed the finish line ahead of Boise State's Yusuke Uchikoshi, who bested the Wyoming freshman to win the Mountain West title two weekends ago and entered the NCAA West Prelims as the national leader in the event. Finishing ahead of Ewing on Friday night were three seniors and a sophomore. Ewing was the third-fastest freshman competitor in the field of 48 runners behind BYU's Matt Owens and Portland's Riley Osen.
 
Wyoming will continue competition at the NCAA West Preliminary Round on Saturday. Follow along at the links above and stay tuned to @wyo_track on twitter for more updates. Below is Wyoming's schedule for Saturday (all times MT).

Saturday, May 26
1 p.m. – Women's Hammer Throw (Emelda Malm-Annan)
5:30 p.m. – Women's Triple Jump (Ja'la Henderson)
7:30 p.m. – Men's 1,500m Quarterfinal (Daniel Hintz)