McNeill Shatters Outdoor 5,000-Meter School Record
Photo by Cheryl Treworgy/PrettySporty
PALO ALTO, Calif. – There was never a doubt whether Northern Arizona senior student-athlete David McNeill would finish first in the top section of the 5,000-meter run at the Stanford Invitational Friday evening. The Australian native broke his own outdoor school record of 13:30.63 by five seconds when he turned in an NCAA-leading time of 13:25.63.
McNeill also recorded a Commonwealth Games qualifying-mark with his school-record time, which puts him in a position to represent his home country of Australia in Delhi, India this October.
This was the first race McNeill has competed in since his amazing run at the NCAA Indoor Championships two weeks ago which saw him win the 5K national championship and finish runner-up in the 3,000-meter run.
"It is amazing how when he sets his mind to something, he goes out and does it," Interim Director of Track and Field & Cross Country Eric Heins said about McNeill. "He decided that he wanted to give himself a shot to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games and he did just that without a huge amount of competition out there tonight. It was very enjoyable to watch him out there tonight."
"I knew exactly what I wanted to do," McNeill said about running under 13:30. "Being focused on that and knowing where I had to be helped me get the job done. It was good to have (Juan Carlos) Romero in the race because he was doing what I was doing and we exchanged the lead several times."
Up next for McNeill will be a mini break of sorts since the eight-time All-American wasn't able to rest after the national championships.
"Right now I can take my post-indoor break and give the legs a rest before I begin my second half of the season," McNeill said.
The senior turned in the heat's best time by nearly 10 seconds when he broke away from professional runner Romero of Nike with just over two laps remaining. Jordan MacNamara of Oregon was the first collegiate athlete to finish behind McNeill in a time of 13:45.45.
In other NAU track and field action Friday, the hammer throw took place at the ASU Invitational with senior Curtis Durocher (201-1) and junior Ian Nunya (179-11) both bumping their conference-leading marks up by two and four centimeters, respectively.
The ASU Invite will continue Saturday morning, beginning with the discus at 10:00 a.m. PDT.
