The Stride Report has confirmed that Wake Forest star Thomas Vanoppen, a 3:54 miler and 1500 meter All-American from last spring, has scratched out of the mile finals at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
During the mile prelims on Friday night, the Demon Deacon ace broke his toe with roughly 600 meters left in the race. He crossed the line in 6th place (in his heat) and initially received an at-large time qualifier to the mile finals on Saturday night.
At the time of publication, it is unclear to The Stride Report if Vanoppen's scratch will allow the next-fastest athlete in the mile prelims (in this case, Aidan Ryan) to advance to the mile finals.
Vanoppen was expected to play a major role in Saturday's mile final. Viewed as an elite tactician with upper-tier times, the Belgium middle distance talent seemingly held an outside shot to pull off an upset title win over the likes of the Washington men and Anass Essayi.