Usual Suspects Take Lead For Dawgs At Prelims

Thursday, May 28

Austin, TX

All Day

University of Washington

NCAA Regionals (West)

Photo by: Washington Athletics

May 29, 2015 | Track & Field

By: Washington Athletics

AUSTIN, Texas – Four experienced Huskies took one step closer to the NCAA Outdoor Championships today at Mike A. Myers Stadium at the University of Texas. On day one of the three-day West Preliminaries, Gianna Woodruff, Izaic Yorks, Eleanor Fulton, and Baylee Mires all navigated their first round races, setting them up for quarterfinals on Friday or Saturday with bids to nationals on the line.

The West Prelims collects the top-48 athletes from the western half of the NCAA in every individual track and field event, and trims that group to twelve that will advance to Eugene for the championship rounds on June 10-13. Advancing through the first round today was Woodruff in the 400-meter hurdles, Fulton in the 1,500-meters, Yorks in the 1,500-meters and Mires in the 800m. Woodruff, Yorks, and Mires have all made the final site in their events in previous years, while Fulton makes the quarterfinals for a third time.

The first Husky on the track this week was senior All-American Woodruff, looking to move through the Prelims for the third year in a row. Woodruff was in the sixth and final heat, and had few issues securing a top-three spot to move into the quarterfinals. She finished second in her heat in 59.17 seconds, the ninth-fastest out of the 48 entries. Woodruff will race for a spot in Eugene on Friday.

For a third straight year, senior Eleanor Fulton advanced through the 1,500-meters first round. Running near the back early, Fulton had to avoid a stumbling athlete in front of her, but made up the ground and moved to the front with two to go. She continued near the lead the rest of the way, finishing fourth in her heat in 4:28.62. Fulton will run again on Saturday.

In the men's 1,500-meters, Pac-12 Champion Izaic Yorks ran a very controlled effort from up in the front throughout. A semifinalist in the 1,500-meters last year, Yorks moved into the quarterfinals with a time of 3:46.53, second in his heat. Sophomore Nick Harris was 12^th in the same heat with Yorks in 4:04.83, while redshirt frosh Johnathan Stevens was 11^th in an earlier heat in 3:55.90, neither moving on.

Later in the evening, junior Baylee Mires ran one of the top times in the 800-meters first round, as she took second in her heat in 2:07.53 to advance. Freshman Rose Christen was seventh in the same heat, not moving on with a 2:12.70.

Capping the night off, the 10,000-meter runs put all 48 qualifiers on the track at once and sent the top-12 on to Eugene. Sophomore Kaylee Flanagan was up in her first West Prelims race, and the Illinoisan ran very solid, picking off a few runners over the last several laps to move up to 16^th overall in 35:08.44, just a few spots away from advancing. Junior Tyler King then took to the track a few minutes before 10 p.m., and he stuck with the large pack for the first half of the race before dropping back and winding up 30th in a time of 31:39.57.

Another debut came from redshirt freshman Carson Murray in the men's high jump. Murray, who cleared a huge PR of 7-1 ½ in the Pac-12 decathlon, opened with makes of 6-8 and 6-9 ¾ but had three misses at 6-11 ¾ to finish tied for 28^th overall.

Sophomore Kennadi Bouyer was unable to better her long jump PR set back at Pac-12s, as she had a best of 18-5 on three tries today. Bouyer will look to help the women's 4x100m relay punch its ticket on Saturday. Also competing but not finding the mark was junior Frank Catelli in the discus, who had three fouls today.

Friday's action for the Huskies will start with Gina Flint in the women's discus at 12 noon Central Time, with Kristina Owsinski, Diamara Planell Cruz, and Elizabeth Quick in women's pole vault and Catelli men's shot put also going in the field. On the track Kimberly Stueckle and Chris Williams will have first rounds in the high hurdles, Haley Jacobson will go in the 200-meters, and Mires and Woodruff will have their races for Eugene in the 800-meters, and 400-meter hurdles. Meron Simon, Aaron Nelson, and Andrew Gardner will wrap it up in the 3,000-meter steeplechase tomorrow night.