BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Junior Faith Linga qualified for next month's NCAA Championships with a time of 34:27.92 in the 10,000m at the NCAA East Regional Preliminary meet on Thursday at the University of Indiana's Haugh Track & Field Complex. Linga, who finished ninth overall in a field of 48 runners, will now advance to the NCAA Championship meet in Eugene, Oregon on June 8-11.

"I am immensely proud of how our women performed today," head coach Andrea Grove-McDonough said after the first two races of the weekend. "We really showed Toledo belongs with the best."

Senior Stephanie Sherman just missed the qualifying mark in the 10,000m with a 13th-place finish and a time of 34:42.10. The top 12 runners from each regional advance to the NCAA Championships.

"It was also an incredible range of emotions: elation for Faith to advance to her first National Championship, and some heartbreak for Stephanie to come within one place of advancing," Grove-McDonough said.

Sophomore Lou Trois finished sixth in her heat of the 1500m with a personal-best time of 4:18.45, just missing the group of 24 runners that advanced to Saturday's finals run. Trois finished No. 25 overall, just 0.16 seconds behind Teagan Schein-Becker of Rider who crossed the line at 4:18.39. Trois' time beat her previous personal best by more than a second, and still holds the third-best time in the 1500m in program history.

"Lou ran with such poise and put up another personal best, to also fall one place short of moving on to the quarterfinals. But she had an amazing final four weeks of the season and is clearly going to be a contender in the future," Grove-McDonough added about Trois' performance.

"Now we focus on the steeplechase and the 5000m on Saturday," Grove-McDonough said, "and the opportunity to take another swing at it."

The Rockets will run their final two races on Saturday to close out the final day of the regionals. Senior Semra Karaslan and sophomore Emily Vining will run in the 3000m steeplechase at 5:40 p.m. while Sherman will compete in the 5000m race at 8:15 p.m.

NCAA East Regional Outdoor Track & Field Championships
Bloomington, Ind. | Haugh Track & Field Complex
Wednesday-Saturday, May 25-28

Thursday, May 27 - Toledo results

1500m
25. Lou Trois – 14:18.45 PR

10,000m
9. Faith Linga – 34:27.92
13. Stephanie Sherman – 34:42.10.