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For the second consecutive outdoor track season and the third time in his career, senior middle distance runner Jesse Garn is heading to the NCAA Championships.

In the finals of men’s 800 at the East Regional Meet, held May 27 at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, the senior middle distance standout finished 12th overall with a time of 1:47.35.

The top three finishers in each of the three eight-runner heats plus the next three fastest times advanced to the NCAA Championships, which will be held June 8-11 at the University of Oregon. Although Garn was fifth in the first of three heats, he had the ninth-fastest overall time and the third-best time outside of the top three in a heat.

Brandon McBride, who was seeded first coming into the weekend, won Garn’s heat with a time of 1:44.89. It was the fastest overall time by nearly two seconds. Six of the top 10 times came from that same heat. The second heat was won by Robert Heppenstall of Wake Forest (1:47.11) and Daniel Kuhn of Indiana captured the final heat (1:48.40).

At the upcoming NCAA meet, the preliminaries of the 800 will take place on Wednesday, June 8, at 9:14 EST while the finals are on Friday, June 10 at 9:47 p.m. EST. ESPN2 will air the preliminaries while the finals will be shown live on ESPN.

Friday’s race climaxed a challenging year for Garn. After missing the indoor season with an injury, Garn had to pull out of the 1,500 preliminaries at the America East outdoor meet three weeks ago.

“It’s very exciting to make it back,” he said afterwards. “It has been tough getting my fitness back this year, so to be able to go to nationals is pretty emotional right now.”

Just as impressive was the depth of this year’s field in the NCAA East Region in his event.

“This was a much deeper field in the 800 this year,” assistant coach Annette Acuff said. “We are all happy that Jesse not only made it back to nationals but did it against some very good runners.”

Garn is already a two-time United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association (USTFCCCA) All-American. He earned first-team status with a fourth-place finish in the 800 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last June. He also earned honorable mention status at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Meet.

Garn is now in position to become just the third Binghamton athlete to earn NCAA Division I All-America honors three times during their career. Erik van Ingen was a four-time, first-team All-American during the 2011 and 2012 track seasons in the indoor mile (twice) and outdoor 1,500 (twice). Pole vaulter Rory Quiller was a three-time All-American during the 2007 and 2008 campaigns and won the 2008 indoor national championship.

At Eugene in two weeks, places 1-8 will be named first-team All-America by the USTFCCCA. Second-team honors will go to places 9-16 while honorable mention status will go to the rest of the competitors (places 17-24).