Jacksonville, FL – Hofstra Men's Track standout Alex Masai placed 22nd in the 10,000-meter run at the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Track and Field Championships East Preliminary at the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium Thursday night.

Masai, a junior from Eldoret, Kenya, posted a time of 30:09.10 to finish ten spots outside of advancing to the national championships in Austin, Texas from June 5-8. He finished 1:18 behind the East Preliminary champion, senior Gilbert Kigen from Alabama, who clocked a time of 28:51.11. The last qualifying time went to 12th-place junior Iliass Aouani from Syracuse in 29:19.46.

Masai broke the Hofstra school record in the 10,000-meter run at the Bucknell Bison Outdoor Classic on Saturday, April 13 with a fourth-place finish in 29:39.36. Masai's time topped Meshack Kipchirchir's fifth-place time of 30:07.12 in the 10,000-meter run invite that was set at the 2018 Penn Relays. Masai's time at Bucknell was also the best time in the Colonial Athletic Association this year. It is also the 38th-best time in the east this season to qualify for the NCAA Championships East Preliminary.

Last October, Masai won the 8K 2018 CAA Men's Cross Country Championship in a school-record time of 24:00.70 to become the first Hofstra cross country conference champion.