Sears finished fourth in the event at the Ken Shannon Invitational Saturday at Husky Stadium with a time of 3:54.92, breaking the old mark by over two seconds. With that time, he moved into fourth place on the Great West Conference performance list heading into the conference championships this weekend.
This will be the third conference championship event Sears will participate in this year. At the Great West Conference Cross Country Championships on Oct. 31, 2009, he finished 23rd over the eight-kilometer course in 27:23.12, helping the Seattle U men finish in second place in the conference.
Sears competed in both the one mile run and the 800 meter run at the Great West Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, finishing in 12th place in the mile run in 4:33.80 and in 19th place in the 800 meter run in 2:08.31. He also anchored the distance medley squad to a sixth place finish.
Sears is scheduled to compete in both the 1500 meter run and the 5000 meter run at the Great West Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by the University of South Dakota at Williams Field in Yankton, S.D. The 1500 meter run is scheduled to start at 12:50 p.m. CDT Saturday, May 15, while the 5000 meter run is set to be contested just over two hours later at 2:55 p.m. local time.
This is the first weekly honor for any Seattle University track and field athlete since joining the Great West Conference last summer. The last time a Seattle University track and field student-athlete received a weekly award from a conference was back on April 23, 2007, when Daniel Sullivan earned a share of the GNAC Male Track & Field Athlete of the Week honor.
Competition for Seattle University in the Great West Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships begins Thursday, May 13, with Kaytie Bateman competing in the heptathlon during the afternoon, Rachel Yorkston running in the women's 10,000 meter run at 7:30 p.m. local time, and Hans Heitzinger and Nicholas Alvarado competing in the men's 10,000 meter run at 7:45 p.m. CDT.