LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Cornell men's track and field team got off to a solid start at Day One of the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round at the University of Kentucky in Lexington on Thursday. Senior captain James Gowans advanced out of the first round of the 1500 meter run, while senior captain Rudy Winkler punched his ticket to a third straight NCAA Championship meet in the hammer throw.
 
Winkler, recently named the Charles H. Moore Outstanding Senior Athlete of the Year at Cornell, became the first Big Red athlete to advance to Eugene this season, qualifying in the hammer for the third straight year. Despite a several hour rain delay, Winkler easily finished in the top 12, placing sixth.  After a foul on his first throw, his second round throw of 225-2 was enough to punch a ticket to Eugene, and he improved to 225-9 on his third and final throw.

Senior co-captain James Gowans closed with an extraordinary burst in the final 75 meters to grab second in his heat of the 1500.  He ran his final 400 in 55.06 to post a time 3:50.69 and moves on to Saturday's race with a chance for a second straight trip to Eugene. Also in his heat was junior Chase Silverman, who closed under 60 seconds for his final 400 to run 3:55.41, good for 39^th overall, a nice improvement on his pre-meet seeding. And in the men's 10,000, junior Sam Chauvin closed out a fine season with a 36th place finish of 31:09.03, another improvement on pre-meet seeding.

Three Cornellians will be competing tomorrow, as senior Grant Sisserson (pole vault), sophomore Zach Menchaca (200 meter) and junior Michael Wang (3000 meter steeplechase) are set to take on the field.

Full results can be found here while a full list of entries and seedings for Friday and Saturday can be found here. The meet will be streamed on SEC  on Friday and Saturday.

Cornell Entries (seed)
Friday, May 26:
4:30 PM – Men's Pole Vault:  Grant Sisserson '17 (21)
7:55 PM – Men's 200 First Round:  Zach Menchaca '19 (43)
9:00 PM – Men's 3000 Steeplechase Quarterfinals:  Michael Wang '18 (34)
Saturday May 27:
3:00 PM – Men's Triple Jump First Round:  Bobby Plummer '17 (12) and John Enkler '17 (34)
6:00 PM – Men's High Jump First Round:   Myles Lazarou '18 (20)
6:15 PM – Men's 4x100 Relay Quarterfinal:  Cornell – Jonathan Avery '19, Menchaca, James Norris '20, Andy Snyder '20 (24)
6:45 PM – Men's 1500 Quarterfinal:  Gowans
7:50 PM - Men's 200 Quarterfinal:   Menchaca
8:45 PM – Men's 5000 Semi-Final:   David Taylor '17 (28), Mark Tedder '17 (33) , and Dominic DeLuca '18 (42)