Entering the final lap of the men’s mile at the NCAA Last Chance Qualifier on Saturday at Lied Recreation Athletic Center, it was junior Mohamed Hrezi and senior Rico Loy competing for a time to earn a spot at the NCAA Championships.

Neck and neck until the very end, Loy crossed the finish line first (4:03.35) with Hrezi one second behind him, but that would prove not to be enough as the automatic qualifying time for the mile is 4:01.30.

ISU coach Corey Ihmels said if the two runners had started the race faster than they did, it might be a different story.

“They had a good effort at the end,” Ihmels said. “They just didn’t give themselves a chance up front. When you are in a race like that and the rabbit goes out, you have to go with the rabbit and they didn’t and it cost them in the end.

“Hopefully that’s a learning experience for both of them. We’ll get back to work outdoors. I’m more excited about what we can do outdoors versus what we’ve done indoors.”

After Saturday’s competition, the indoor season most likely ended for Loy, who was just a couple seconds away from his personal best in the mile. Loy said having Hrezi right there with him during the race was a good motivator for him to run strong.

“I knew I would have to run the last lap by myself,” Loy said. “I didn’t even expect that Mohamed would be up there with me. I mean I knew that he was really fit, but I didn’t expect him to be in front of me.

“For me personally, it’s really hard to go alone the last lap, it’s a really hard thing to do. I just like to be in fast races and just hang in there. I think I’m a little more motivated if I see someone in front of me.”

The indoor season has now come to an end for Hrezi as well, who ran a personal best of 4:04.39 on Saturday, and training will start with high-mileage workouts.

“My miles have been very low [recently during indoors],” Hrezi said. “I’m just going to get my miles up for probably another three weeks and then focus on outdoor. We still have to find an event [for outdoor], so we are just going to start training and try to see where I fit.”

Ihmels said there will be some recuperation time involved throughout the next week for the athletes who competed in the Last Chance qualifier, but after that, preparation will begin for outdoor season.

“Once Spring Break comes around, everybody will be back on course and we will get back to getting some more volume in and then get ready to roll,” Ihmels said.