Matt Gonzales won't be heading to Athens next month, but he can be proud of his performance at the Olympic trials in Sacramento, Calif.
The UNM junior placed sixth in the finals of the 5,000-meter run. The top three finishers qualified for this summer's Olympics.
"I'm excited about the way I ran," Gonzales said. "It's still a little disappointing to not qualify, but I didn't run badly at all."
Gonzales won his preliminary heat earlier in the week, and was right up front with the leaders for most of Friday's final. He started to fade with just two laps to go.
"I was still feeling the last race, but I still thought I had a good chance," he said. "Winning the preliminary was good for my confidence."
Gonzales said despite not qualifying, the race was an experience he can learn from.
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"It will definitely help me improve my running," he said. "I raced well tactically and learned so much by racing against some of those guys."
Gonzales narrowly edged-out former Colorado runner Jorge Torres, the 2002 NCAA cross country champion. Tim Broe, the 2003 U.S. 5,000 champion, won the race.
Racing for Athens was an excellent way for Gonzales to cap an exhausting 2004 season.
"To be honest, this was a really long season," he said
Gonzales said it can be hard for collegiate runners to race in events like the qualifier.
Whereas most of the men competing try to train for 13 or 14 weeks before an event, Gonzales has been running at the competitive level for about 28 weeks.
"That's one reason collegiates have a hard time getting (to the Olympics)," Gonzales said. "They've been running for a lot longer than you would normally want."
But he said he also feels very strongly that burning out is a mental, rather than physical occurrence for runners.
"It gets hard after such a long season, but I still had a good performance," he said.
And it can only help the UNM track team to have a player almost qualify for the highest level of sport.
"This definitely helps the program," Gonzales said. "Guys look at who runs in the programs and what the team members have done when they're thinking about joining."
The races were all on national television, and Gonzales said the exposure will show fans and potential recruits the UNM squad is a program on the rise.
Gonzales will take some much-deserved time off for now before returning in the fall to lead a UNM cross country team that is expected to be one of the best in the country.
