Western's Boteilho places 17th in men's 10,000 at NCAA II Championships

May 22, 2003

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Western Washington University's Zach Boteilho (Sr., Camas) placed 17th among 18 runners in the men's 10,000-meter final at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Thursday at Ralph Korte Stadium on the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville campus.

Boteilho was clocked in 31:43.19. Josh Eberly of Western State CO won the event in 29:34.34, just edging Edinboro's Aaron Rowe (29:35.65) at the tape.

"He would have had to run a personal best to be an All-American (top eight finishers)," said Western coach Pee Wee Halsell. "It's probably one of the fastest 10ks I've seen at a national meet."

"He was right in with the lead group at the start and he stayed in contact up until about 10 laps to go. He fought back for three or four more laps, but after that fourth lap the legs just went out."

Boteilho was a provisional national qualifier who ranked 18th nationally coming into the meet. He placed ninth at the Oregon Invitational in a personal-best time of 30:33.23. Last year, Boteilho won the 10k at the Oregon meet as an unattached runner.

"I'm proud of him," Halsell said. "Five years ago neither one of us would have thought he'd be here, and he's transformed into a championship runner. It's not an easy thing to get to this meet and I'm sad for him. It's tough to see him go out this way."

The other two members of Western's national contingent compete Saturday. Stacey Hopkins (Jr., Sammamish/Eastlake) throws the javelin at 2:30 p.m. CT, and Ashlee Vincent (So., Bellingham/Squalicum) runs in the women's 5,000 final at 7:30 p.m.

It is the second trip to nationals for Vincent, who ranks No.13 nationally.

Vincent, who is transferring to NCAA I Portland next fall for academic reasons, ran the 5,000 twice during the regular season. Her best outing came at the Stanford Invitational where she set a school record with a 17:02.00 clocking. That was 15 seconds better than the best time by a NCAA II Northwest runner in the past five years.

Hopkins' best throw this spring is 148-4, which ranks eighth nationally and is the fifth-best toss in school history.