BRADENTON, Fla. – Covering the final 200 meters of a historic season on Friday, Montana State University Billings sprinter Sam Zook finished in 15th place in the preliminaries at the NCAA Track & Field Championships with a time of 21.45 seconds at IMG Academy.
 
Zook, who ran in Lane 7 of the second heat in the 200-meters, moved up four spots from his entry seeding of 19th place to end one of the best seasons in Yellowjacket history. The junior earned second-team All-America honors on Thursday, after finishing in 12th place in the 100-meter preliminaries with a time of 10.52 seconds. 

"I felt like I finished up well overall, and now I know what I need to work on over the summer and into next year going into the national meet again," said Zook. "In today's race, I was mostly just working on staying relaxed and not tensing up when I saw the others coming up on me."

 

 
On Friday, Mobolade Ajomale of Academy of Art posted the top time with a mark of 20.75 seconds to pace the leaders into Saturday's finals. Lester Miller of Shorter won Heat 2 with a time of 21.11 seconds,

and Stephen Rose of Lincoln won Heat 1 with a time of 21.31 seconds. Demontez McCray of McKendree, Justin Brooks of Lee, and Christopher Burton of Anderson were the other automatic qualifiers, and Faedian Royes of Lincoln and Omar Johnson of St. Augustine's also earned berths into the finals with the next two fastest times.
 
Zook was just 0.08 seconds shy of earning All-America honors in the event, during his first trip to the NCAA Championships. "It was good to have a full year of not being injured, and that's all I could ask for," Zook commented on the record-breaking season. "All the support I had from family, friends, and coaches helped too. All in all it was a really good year and I am looking forward to next year."
 
The 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships are being hosted jointly by Tampa University and IMG Academy.
 
THE BUZZ: Zook became the first male All-American in school history in outdoor track and field…Zook broke the school record in both the 100-meters and 200-meters this spring…he claimed GNAC titles in the 100-meters and 200-meters during the outdoor season, and the 60-meters during the indoor season.