JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Junior distance runners Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) and Logan Wetzel (Saline, Mich.) each qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 1500 meters at Hodges Stadium on Saturday night.  Both runners were automatic qualifiers coming out of the national quarterfinal heats at the NCAA East Preliminary, where Villanova wrapped up three days of competition on the University of North Florida campus.  Sophomore Martin Barr (Skokie, Ill.) was also in action and came in 16^th in his national semifinal heat of the 5000 meters.
 
Comber and Wetzel will represent the Wildcats at the NCAA Championships which take place in Austin, Texas on June 5 and 7.  It will be the first career appearance at the outdoor national meet for both runners.  They recorded times of 3:43.20 and 3:50.04 in separate heats on Saturday night, with each placing in the top five of their heat to ensure an automatic NCAA berth. 
 
The first of the two heats to go out was a more tactical one than the race which followed it, and Wetzel started to make his final kick with 250 meters to go.  He got to the outside of a crowded pack of runners and held his ground coming down the final straightaway.  The five runners in the heat who earned the automatic qualifying spots were separated by only seven-tenths of a second at the finish line. 
 
"It was pretty slow so I knew that last lap was going to be pretty chaotic," Wetzel said of the pace.  "I just wanted to get outside and make sure I was in a good position.  The last 100 meters I had no gears left and I was really hoping no one got me.  I was thinking 'make it to the line, make it to the line' and then I got there and got the fifth spot.  I am really excited to be going to Austin." 
 
The second heat of the 1500 meters was entirely different, with the pack of runners going out in 57 seconds on their first full lap.  Yared Nuguse of Notre Dame had a wire-to-wire lead in the race, but Comber stayed with him and the pair eventually put a gap between themselves and the rest of the field.  Comber's finishing time of 3:43.20 is the second-fastest 1500 meter race of his career.  On a hot day in the Jacksonville area, the temperature still hovered around 90 degrees when the race was run just before 7 p.m. 
 
"The heat here is something different," Comber said.  "Going out there today it happened to be a real hard race and I had to bring it in a little bit that last 100 meters.  I think there are a couple things I could do a little better in two weeks [at NCAAs].  There are a lot of little things I can correct that I think bod well for me at nationals, so I'm excited." 
 
In his debut at the NCAA East Preliminary last season, Comber ran the 5000 meters which has only a semifinal race at the regional meet.  This was his first time going through first round and quarterfinal heats in the 1500 meters, although he did advance to the final of the Mile and post a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships during the indoor season earlier this year. 
 
"Having gone to indoor nationals and going through those heats, coming here I was pretty confident," Comber said.  "I try to be proactive and do some research about each race.  I just have to prepare the right way and have my day because anything can happen."
 
Wetzel had also run at the NCAA East Preliminary before, but it was two years ago as a redshirt freshman when he advanced to the quarterfinal round of the 1500 meters but did not make it to the national championships.  His experience from the 2017 preliminary meet in Lexington, Ky. helped him in his second go-around. 
 
"This not being my first time at regionals was a bit of a confidence booster," Wetzel said.  "I knew what I had to do to get through the rounds and try to qualify.  That was the main goal, to be in all those top five spots and get it done.  Going through the rounds and the prelims mimics Austin pretty well.  We still have two weeks of work to do to get ready for that, and I think Casey would agree we still have a lot more we want to get done.  I am excited to have that opportunity in a couple of weeks.
 
Villanova's final race of the week was the first semifinal heat in the 5000 meters.  Barr competed well in his first time running at the NCAA East Preliminary and posted a time of 14:43.24.  He ran right in the middle of a crowded pack of runners that did not start to string out until after the first 3000 meters.  Two of his first seven laps were the fastest in the field, and he was still just a few strides off the lead with 1200 meters to go.  A lead pack of nine runners separated themselves with less than three laps to go. 
 
The semifinal race was a good ending to the season for Barr, who recorded a personal best time of 14:01.63 at the Stanford Invitational earlier this year and went on to score in the 5000 meters at the BIG EAST Championships two weeks ago.