Wynne Qualifies for Men's Mile Final at NCAAs

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March 11, 2016

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-Virginia junior Henry Wynne qualified for the men’s mile final on the first day of the NCAA Indoor Championships Friday (March 11) at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Ala.

In the men’s mile, Wynne (Westport, Conn.) placed third in his semifinal and third overall in 4:07.51 to qualify for the final, which will take place at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

The men’s distance medley relay of freshman Robby Keough (Atlanta, Ga.), junior Nathan Kiley (Chantilly, Va.), sophomore Kenneth Hagen (Blacksburg, Va.) and freshman Matthew Novak (Glen Allen, Va.) placed 10th in a time of 9:53.16. After Keough had to hurdle a runner who had fallen due to a collision in front of him, Kiley ran the third-fastest 400m split (47.39) of the field of 12 teams. The foursome earn second-team All-America honors for the 10th-place finish.

“Robby (Keough) did a good job of fighting and not becoming rattled after he got tripped up and almost went down,” UVA director of track and field/cross country Bryan Fetzer said. “This was a good experience for him and the group, which includes two freshmen and one sophomore. They all learned a lot from it and it will not be the last time they will be here.

“Henry (Wynne) has a shot at something special, so instead of running in the DMR, we wanted to give him the best chance we could in the mile. We still have a chance to finish as high as we felt we could going into the meet with two scoring opportunities tomorrow on the men’s side.”

Graduate student Iona Lake placed 15th overall in the women’s mile semifinals in 4:48.11 to earn second-team All-America honors.

The meet concludes Saturday (March 12). In addition to Wynne in the men’s mile final at 5 p.m., redshirt sophomore Filip Mihaljevic (Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina) will compete in the men’s shot put at 3 p.m.