Mt. SAC Relays : UC Irvine’s Gus Quinonez Qualifies for NCAAs

Gus Quinonez has never made the cover of Track & Field News. He has yet to make an Olympic team.

But at Saturday night’s Mt. SAC Relays, he ran for a few moments with several who have achieved such accolades, sparking the UC Irvine senior to a lifetime best 29 minutes 9 seconds in the men’s invitational 10,000 meters at Mt. San Antonio College.

The race featured a star-studded field, including 1984 U.S. Olympian Pat Porter, a six-time national cross-country champion, and Mexico’s Mauricio Gonzalez, a world class runner.

Gonzalez won the race in 27:43.64, the fastest time in the world this year, and Porter was second in a lifetime best 27:46.80.

Gonzalez and Porter led the entire race, lapping Quinonez after 5.5 miles. But instead of finding defeat in being lapped, Quinonez found strength to hang with the leaders for 200 yards, giving him the extra boost he needed to meet his season’s goal.

His time surpassed the 29:17 qualifying mark for the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. track and field championships, June 1-4 at Eugene, Ore.

“I definitely needed something like that to get me going,” said Quinonez, whose previous best was 29:45.

“When Porter passed me, I just hung on and tried to stay with him. I can’t believe it. This is the greatest.”

Irvine’s Beth McGrann also qualified for the NCAA finals in the women’s 10,000 meters.

McGrann finished 24th in 33:54, easily surpassing the qualifying mark of 34:25.

That time erased the former Anteater record of 36:03 set by Lori Shanoff in 1983.

Said McGrann: “That was my first 10,000, and I thought it would be my last. Now it looks like I’ll have to run it one more time.”

Canada’s Sue Lee of Crossing Lines won the race in 36:26.2

Irvine’s Richard Graves didn’t fare quite as well in the men’s 5,000. Graves, who needed to run 13:57.0 to qualify for NCAAs, finished two seconds off to place 13th at 13:59.0.

Ignacio Tragojo of Mexico won the men’s 5,000 in 13:43.36.

Mark Junkermann, a former prep standout at Los Alamitos High School, finished fourth in 13:48.0, just missing the Olympic trials qualifying mark of 13:41.58.

In the women’s 3,000 meters, Irvine’s Judy McLaughlin also came close to qualifying for the NCAAs. McLaughlin, who ran her first 1,600 meters in 4:55, finished in 9:24.6. The qualifying standard is 9:22.24.

In the men’s 100 meters, Irvine’s Fred Simmons finished fourth in his heat in 10.76. In the women’s 100 meters, LaQueta Harvey placed fifth in 12.36.

The Irvine men’s distance medley team placed third in that event in 9:55.18.

Today’s portion of the event features many world-class athletes, including Carl Lewis and Larry Myricks.

Irvine’s Buffy Rabbitt and Jill Harrington will run in the invitational women’s 1,500 meters, which start at 11:20 a.m.