EUGENE, Ore. – A pair of standouts from the University of San Francisco track and field team will be taking on the best in the nation this weekend. Distance runners Charlotte Taylor and Weronika Pyzik will compete at the NCAA National Championships this weekend at the historic Hayward Field and will be televised live on ESPN2.
 
Taylor, the All-American and defending NCAA National Champion in the 10,000-meters, will be looking to add to her collection of honors. She will need to finish in the top-eight out of the field of 24 in the final race of the season to earn All-American honors again. 
 
"I'm really excited to be going back to Eugene for the track and field championships, and defend my title in the 10,000m," said Taylor. "The goal for this weekend is to go out and race hard. We're expecting the race to be fast and I'm excited to race against some really top competition."
 
At the regionals (May 24-26), Taylor proved she would be a force to be reckoned with in the distance races come Thursday. Competing in the 10,000m, she was within the leading group from the outset. She would cross the line in third-place with a time of 32:20.25 to qualify for the finals, 18 seconds faster than her championship time last season.  
 
"It was a big confidence boost to be able to race at a fast pace, I don't think we knew at the start of the race how fast we were running," recalled Taylor. "Then the group whittled down, it was a nice way to not have to worry about your qualifying position because we had a great group out front. Alice Wright (New Mexico) went straight to the front and made it an honest race, and I like that kind of race. I was content to set behind the pack and, with it being a qualifying run, you just want to get through it as smoothly as you can."
 
On Saturday, Taylor will shift focus to the 5,000m, where she put in a qualifying run at the regionals, having narrowly missed out on qualifying in 2017.
 
For Pyzik, who has spent three years on the Hilltop, it is her first trip to Eugene, Ore. for the national championships. She will be competing alongside Taylor in the 10k. The Polish runner earned a spot in the finals after finishing eighth overall at the regionals with a time of 32:37.89.
 
Pyzik began the qualifying race looking to stay with the leading pack, but as the race went on the group started to get further away, shifting the junior's focus to the second group of runners, and crossing the line in the top-12 runners to qualify.
 
"The whole time I was thinking 'I need to be in the first 12 to qualify,' then, at some point, the first group started to run faster. I got scared that if I tried to keep up with them I would just fall flat at the end and not qualify," said Pyzik. "So, I let that first group go and focused on the second group and stayed with them. It was so surprising how fast the race was, but I didn't even feel that because I was so focused on being in the first 12 to qualify, since it has been my dream to qualify since my freshman year at USF."
 
"I'm so proud of her, it was such a mature way to run, given it was one of the few 10k races under her belt," said Taylor of Pyzik qualifying for the finals. "She's only going to keep improving from here and it's so great to be heading to the championships with a teammate this year."
 
"I am so happy to be in the NCAA Finals and be at this venue," said Pyzik, with a smile on her face. "To be in the top-24 girls in the country in this event makes me so excited."
 
Watch Taylor and Pyzik in the 10,000m finals on ESPN2 at 7:08 p.m. on Thursday, June 8 from Tracktown, USA. Live results can be accessed online here, and fans can follow @DonsXCTF on Twitter for updates from Eugene.