Men's Track & Field | 5/17/2018 4:08:00 PM

Schedule | Men's Qualifiers | Women's Qualifiers

FAIRFAX, Va. – The George Mason men's and women's track and field teams will be represented at next week's NCAA Division I East Preliminary Championship.

Seven Patriots will compete in the East Preliminary Championships on May 24-26 in Tampa as declarations were released by the NCAA on Thursday. Raeshawn Bishop, Rico Gomez, Ashley Lewis, Sarah Moore and John Seals will make return trips while Blaine Lacey and Trent Lancaster will be making their NCAA debuts.

The top 48 individuals – and top 24 relays – in the East region qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary. The top 12 finishers in each individual event and relay at the East and West preliminaries advance to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships on June 6-9 in Eugene, Ore.

Bishop, a senior from Louisa County, Va., will be making his second consecutive trip to the East Preliminary. He qualified for the triple jump with a leap of 50 feet, 8 ¼ inches for a silver medal at the Atlantic 10 Championships earlier this month at George Mason Stadium.

Gomez, a native of Upper Marlboro, Md., qualified for the 400-meter dash for the second straight season. The junior ran 47.02 to win gold in the 400 at the A-10 Championships. He also won gold as anchor of the 4x400-meter team to an A-10 Championship record time of 3:09.10.

Lewis, a sophomore from Boston, will make her second trip to the East Preliminary as well, competing in the 800-meter run. She finished second at the A-10 Championships with a time of 2:05.82, which is the 17th fastest mark in the East region this year. Lewis, who finished fourth in the 800 at the USATF Junior Championships last June, also won gold at the A-10 Championships as a member of the 4x400-meter relay team that set the conference meet record with a time of 3:38.58.

Moore also makes her second straight appearance at the East Preliminary. The junior from Silver Spring, Md., qualified for the 400-meter dash with a time of 53.41, which won her gold at the A-10 Championships. She also anchored the record-setting 4x400-meter relay team.

Seals is the veteran of the group, making his third trip to East Preliminary. The Springfield, Va., native, redshirted last season but qualified in both 2015 and 2016 in the high jump. He also competed in the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships in the heptathlon, earning USTFCCCA Second Team All-America honors.  

The redshirt junior qualified for the high jump once again with a leap of 7 feet, ½ inch at the Mason Spring Invitational in April. He won three medals at the A-10 Championships – a gold (110-meter hurdles), silver (high jump) and bronze (long jump) – and was named the Men's Outstanding Field Performer.

Lacey, a redshirt junior from Chesapeake, Va., will be making his trip to the East Preliminary. He qualified in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:49.24 at the Duke Invitational last month. He also won a silver medal in the 800 at both the A-10 Championships and IC4A Championships.

Lancaster, a redshirt junior from Sterling, Va., rounds out the group. He also makes his first trip to regionals, qualifying in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. His time of 9:02.77 set the school record and was good enough for second at the A-10 Championships.