COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Thursday morning is a historic morning for the Saint Mary's Track program. Announced by the NCAA, the list of participants for the 2021 NCAA DI Track and Field Championships preliminary competitions were chosen, and the Gaels have a runner who has qualified. Rayna Stanziano will keep her record-breaking season alive by becoming the first female Gael to qualify for the NCAA West Prelims, and the first Gael of any kind to continue her season in this event since Noah McDermott in 2018.
 
Stanziano will be running in the 1500m that she has dominated all season long, where she qualifies for the prelims with a 4:19.87, a school record. This puts her in 32^nd overall out of 48 qualified runners, and gives the WCC two schools in the 1500m. BYU has six different runners who qualified for the 1500m, but no other school has a runner entered aside from Stanziano.
 
"This is an exciting moment for the women's program," said head coach Marty Kinsey. "The whole team put in such hard work during this pandemic. It is great to see one of our student-athletes qualify. Rayna has done a tremendous job herself this year. The future of this team is bright and we are eager to get to Texas and race!"
 
The numbers Stanziano has put up this season have been awfully special in every regard. Every time out, Stanziano improved in the 1500m, culminating with the mark she hit at the West Coast Distance Carnival to land her spot in the NCAA West Prelims. Consider this: the first 1500m time she ran this season was nearly a school record, at 4:33.78. Since then, she has shaved off 14 seconds from her time, breaking her own school record every time out. Not only was she fast in the 1500m, she ran the 800m five times this year, culminating with an SMC record time of 2:08.19 at the Fresno State Invitational, which was less than a second off of the qualifying pace.
 
Stanziano will run in the NCAA West Prelims on Thursday, May 27 with the first round of the 1500m set to start at 6:30 pm CT (4:30 pm PT). The quarterfinals will be on Saturday, May 29 at 5:45 pm CT, with a spot in the National Championship on the line. If Stanziano were to make even more history, the NCAA Championship begins on June 9 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.