June 9, 2011
Complete Results
DES MOINES, Iowa--Senior Matthew Gibney (Albury, Australia) ran his best time of the season in the 1500 meters and automatically qualified for the national championships race by placing fourth in his semifinal heat at Drake Stadium on Thursday evening. Gibney crossed the finish line in 3:43.06 and is ranked fourth overall out of the 12 qualifiers for Saturday afternoon's finals.
Gibney started strong and was in fifth place after the first 300 meters of the race, a spot he needed to be in with the top five finishers automatically moving on to the championship race. There were eight runners in contention for those top five finishing spots with 800 meters left in the race, with Gibney the eighth runner in that leading pack.
In the penultimate lap of the race Gibney made a push back into the top five and as the bell sounded for the final lap was in fifth place with Ryan Foster of Penn State running alongside him. Those two began their final lap just before a collision occurred at the back of the leading pack, claiming two runners who did not finish after falling.
The collision enabled the top five to separate themselves from the pack and Gibney was never further back than fifth place during the last lap. He pushed into fourth place with less than 200 meters to go and held that spot as he crossed the finish line.
Gibney now moves on to the finals of the 1500 meters for the second time in his career. He placed fifth and earned All-America honors back in 2009 and now looks to repeat or improve upon that performance on Saturday afternoon.
In the semifinals on Thursday evening Gibney was in the second of two heats and ran in what was the decidedly faster heat. The top eight finishers out of 12 runners in the second heat had the top eight fastest times overall. Dorian Ulrey of Arkansas won the heat with a time of 3:42.44 and was followed by Miles Batty of BYU (3:42.84) and Chris O'Hare of Tulsa (3:43.03) just ahead of Gibney in fourth place.
The finals of the 1500 meters take place on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.
NOTES: The top five runners in each heat plus the next two fastest times advanced to the finals ... Gibney did not run in the 1500 meters at the BIG EAST Championships (he placed third in the 800 meters) but in tonight's heat he came in with a faster time than the top three finishers at the conference meet in Jeremy Rae (Notre Dame), Johnathan Shawel (Notre Dame) and Julian Matthews (Providence).
MEN'S 1500 METERS SEMIFINALS
Qualifiers for national championship race on Saturday
1) Dorian Ulrey (Arkansas) - 3:42.44 (1st in Heat 2)
2) Miles Batty (BYU) - 3:42.84 (2nd in Heat 2)
3) Chris O'Hare (Tulsa) - 3:43.03 (3rd in Heat 2)
4) Matthew Gibney (Villanova) - 3:43.06 (4th in Heat 2)
5) Jeremy Rae (Notre Dame) - 3:43.35 (5th in Heat 2)
6) Darius Terry (Arizona State) - 3:44.46 (6th in Heat 2)
7) Johnathan Shawel (Notre Dame) - 3:44.82 (7th in Heat 2)
8) Matthew Centrowitz (Oregon) - 3:48.67 (1st in Heat 1)
9) Patrick Casey (Montana State) - 3:49.05 (2nd in Heat 1)
10) Erik Van Ingen (Binghamton) - 3:49.07 (3rd in Heat 1)
11) Julian Matthews (Providence) - 3:49.24 (4th in Heat 1)
12) Dumisane Hlaselo (Florida) - 3:49.25 (5th in Heat 1)
