Men's DMR on the Outside Looking In?

The NCAA auto qualifier for the DMR is 9:32.00 and the Villanova quartet of Matt Gibney (1200), Carlton Bowers (400), Jason Apwah (800), and Mathew Mildenhall (1600) finished fourth in their heat and fifth overall tonight in 9:33.50 at the University of Notre Dame's Alex Wilson Invitational. The result ranks the Villanova men at #11 in the NCAA and places team at risk of not being selected for the national indoor championships. Nine teams have secured automatic qualifiers, and Air Force is currently sitting at the #10 spot. "We are more or less on the bubble after our race today," Villanova head coach Marcus O'Sullivan said. "We will find out in a couple of days whether we have made it into the NCAA Championships or not." Tonight's time was 18 seconds faster than the time posted at the Big East indoor meet (9:51.68), when Matt Wikler and Christopher Kearney ran the 1200 and 400 legs, respectively.


Here are the combined results of the two heats.

Distance Medley Relay

1 Minnesota 'A' 9:31.78 AUTO
1) Hutton, Nick 2) Abda, Harun
3) Burkstrand, Travis 4) Blankenship, Ben

2 New Mexico 'A' 9:31.95 AUTO
1) Aragon, Gabe 2) Bishop, David
3) Evans, Sam 4) York, Richard

3 Notre Dame 'A' 9:31.99 AUTO
1) Shawel, Johnathan 2) Feeney, Patrick
3) Howard, Jack 4) Rae, Jeremy

4 Air Force 'A' 9:32.06
1) Stanley, Tyler 2) Delgado, Anthony
3) White, Nick 4) Tyner, Justin

5 Villanova 'A' 9:33.50
1) Gibney, Matthew 2) Bowers, Carlton
3) Apwah, Jason 4) Mildenhall, Mathew

6 Alabama 'A' 9:33.77
1) Rop, Joel 2) James, Kirani
3) Samoei, Fred 4) Bor, Emmanuel

7 Virginia 'A' 9:34.38
1) Johnson, Brett 2) Anding, Kevin
3) Kostelac, Anthony 4) Heineking, Emil

8 Texas 'A' 9:34.62
1) Gonzales, Logan 2) Fortson, Danzell
3) Quercia, Mike 4) McGregor, Patrick

9 Ucla 'A' 9:34.78
1) MacQuitty, Phillip 2) Crawford, Scott
3) Primm, Cory 4) Powell, Quentin

10 Princeton 'A' 9:35.02
1) Van Ackeren, Trevor 2) Eddy, Mike
3) Dinkins, Russell 4) Amirault, Mark

11 Penn State 'A' 9:35.21
1) Borchers, Samuel 2) Nadolsky, Aaron
3) Loxsom, Casimir 4) Dawson, Owen

12 Virginia Tech 'A' 9:40.95
1) Walizer, Chris 2) McCants, Jonathan
3) Degfae, Tihut 4) Hammond, Michael

13 Utah State 'A' 9:43.11
1) Holt, Jason 2) Hunt, Tanner
3) Allred, James 4) Larson, Eric

14 North Dakota St. 'A' 9:43.58
1) Heppner, Moses 2) Jackson, Kevin
3) Stroh, Eric 4) Fitzke, Travis

15 Northern Iowa 'A' 9:47.04
1) Fritz, Brady 2) Madsen, Josh
3) Stockstell, Aaron 4) Vandenabeele, Thibault

16 Marquette 'A' 9:59.00
1) Bolgert, Peter 2) Winter, Kyle
3) Ross, Evan 4) Johnson, Blake

-- Duke 'A' DNF
1) DeMatteo, Domenick 2) Pridemore, Matt
3) Beach, Curtis 4) McDermott, Ryan