O'Gorman Ousts Top East Competitors and Advances to NCAA Final

Wednesday, May 24

Jacksonville, Fla.

All Day

University of North Florida

NCAA Championship East First Round

O'Gorman Ousts Top East Competitors and Advances to NCAA Final

5/24/2023 11:00:00 PM | Men's Track

Event Results

Pedroza Concludes 2023 Outdoor Season With 1500m Appearance

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Aidan O'Gorman left his mark Wednesday evening at the Visit Jax Track at Hodges Stadium, clinching a spot in the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship in the 10,000m race. The highly-lauded runner finished 11th overall in an extremely competitive field of the nation's top performers to earn one of the 12 coveted spots in the finals on June 7, in Austin, Texas.

The senior from New Smryna Beach, Fla., is just the second UNF men's outdoor track and field competitor in program history to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championship. He started with the 27th position in the race and finished the night with a time of 29:12.89.

FINISH LINE

O'Gorman finished in top 12 and will be competing in the NCAA Championship on June 7, in Austin, Tex.
The senior earned a ticket to the next round of competition at 29:12.89 for 11th overall.
Robert Pedroza paced well among the pack in the 1500m, coming out strong in top 10 in his heat and 31st overall at 3:47.59.

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— UNF X-Country/T&F (@OspreyXCTF) May 25, 2023

PIGG'S POINTS

"It's crazy to think about the work that goes into that performance tonight. After the many years Aidan [O'Gorman] has been thinking about that moment, the many miles he's run, the sacrifices that he's made. To eat right, to take time to stretch and roll out and get to bed on time. I mean, his discipline is extreme. He's a great student, in the classroom and I think the fact that classes were over a week ago allowed him to get the time to be rested. I think that obviously the home crowd, with all of his teammates around is such an inspiration. When you're running 25 laps and you're competing for nearly 30 minutes and it's just really uncomfortable, you got to be mentally tough and you have to be physically prepared. This was his day and we're really really proud of him. He's a great dude. He's one of those guys who is the epitome of what you want. He lives clean. He does everything the best he can. He's that guy. He's not looking for shortcuts. He just wants to roll up his sleeves and go to work and see how he stacked up against everybody else and he did a great job. So, obviously we're really proud of him. And then, with Robert [Pedroza] you know, I think Robert put himself in a really good position. He got out and he got into the top three like we talked about. He was right there where we needed him to be but just the closing speed wasn't quite there today. But, he's had a great year and we're really proud of what he's done as well. And so we look forward to Friday with Mac [Franks] running the steeplechase. So that'll be exciting to me."