NCAA T&F Championships

Portland Pilots wrote:EUGENE, Ore. – Portland junior Estanis Ruiz cruised to a personal best and school record time of 8:29.00 in Wednesday's 3,000-Meter Steeplechase semifinals at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships at Hayward Field. Ruiz finished second in his heat to automatically qualify for Friday's finals, scheduled for 6:24 p.m. on ESPN2.

Ruiz looked comfortable from start-to-finish in the second heat, pacing in the middle of the pack for the first half of the race before pushing to the front down the stretch.

Ruiz is the 64th Pilot to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships since 1992 as Portland has been represented at 31 of the last 32 national meets. He is the 13th runner on The Bluff to qualify in the Steeplechase and first since Riley Osen in 2018.

With his advancement, Ruiz is guaranteed to earn at minimum second team All-America honors and becomes the 36th Pilot to garner NCAA Outdoor Track & Field All-American recognition and first since 2018. A top eight finish on Friday would make him a first team All-American.

DoubleDipper wrote:Okay, this is pretty cool:

DoubleDipper wrote:

A junior, Ruiz will presumably be back next year for a chance at a podium finish.

wrv wrote:It would be more cool if the article followed the headline  and related specifically what the prior UP record was rather than merely proclaiming that Ruiz "crushed" it.