University of Washington
UW Invitational
Yorks Nabs Record As Dawgs Light Up Top-10 Lists
January 31, 2016 | Track & Field
UW Invitational
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SEATTLE – The fifteenth installment of the UW Invitational had just about everything this weekend, including world leading times, numerous new NCAA-leading marks, and from a purple and gold point of view, a cavalcade of new additions to the top-10 lists. Those new marks included a school record in the 800-meters from junior Izaic Yorks, as well as a sub-four-minute mile from sophomore Colby Gilbert, becoming the sixth Husky to join that club of which Yorks is also a member.
Over the two-day meet, the Dawgs produced a total of 14 new top-10 marks, and while Yorks got the only record, four more marks ranked as the second-best in school history. Friday night saw Kennadi Bouyer post the No. 2 time in the women's 200-meters, and the women's DMR run the second-fastest time in that indoor specialty, then today in the Dempsey, sophomore Casey Burns leaped to No. 2 all-time in the triple jump with a mark of 50-10 ¼, and sophomore Cole Jensen completed the second-best heptathlon in school history, scoring 5,457 points.
Big new marks were being posted seemingly every few minutes late in the afternoon today, as the top heats of each distance unfolded one after another. Starting things off was the top heat of the women's mile run, with junior Maddie Meyers placing fourth but first among collegiate athletes, in a new PR of 4:38.59. Senior Eleanor Fulton was right behind in fifth in a career-best for her as well, going 4:39.07. Those times rank fifth and sixth in school history, and sophomore Anna Maxwell barely missed the top-10 herself, as she ran a PR of 4:40.41 and senior Baylee Mires had her best mile ever at 4:43.91. All four were doubling back from DMR duty Friday night as well, making the mile times all the more impressive.
Then in the men's mile, sophomore Colby Gilbert clearly had one thing on his mind and that was to join the sub-four-minute club. Gilbert came in with a PR of 4:00.62 from 2015, and his All-American cross country season proved his fitness has only improved. Teammate Fred Huxham set the pace for the field before giving way to Gilbert, who led the entire rest of the way. Hearing the cheers down the homestretch, the Vancouver, Wash. native urged himself across the line just under the mark, winning in 3:59.84.
Gilbert is the sixth Dawg under four minutes, ranking sixth all-time, and he is the 97th individual ever to go sub-four in the Dempsey, but the first this year.
“You've got to feel great, not many people have (broken four minutes), so to be one of those people is pretty amazing,” Gilbert said. “I was nervous because it went out pretty hot and I don't usually start races that fast, but I just thought 'just got to keep rolling' and keep powering through … It's been a goal of mine and on my radar, I was really close last year so I figured a year later, hopefully I'm a little better.”
Colby Gilbert receives congratulations from Fred Huxham after break four minutes in the mile.
Shortly after the excitement from that race, Yorks ran a great battle against BYU 800-meter All-American Shaquille Walker, the 2015 World University Games gold medalist in the event. One of the most versatile runners in the nation, Yorks, who earned cross country All-America honors in the fall over a distance of 10,000-meters, showed he can also hang with the elite at 800-meters. Walker pushed from the get-go, and was able to hold Yorks off to get the win in a meet record time of 1:46.97, but Yorks finished right behind in 1:47.89, a time that now ranks 10th nationally.
Yorks, who holds the UW mile record at 3:57.81, and ran a 3:57 mile split on the DMR last night, broke the indoor school record of 1:48.40 held by Ryan Brown, who won two individual NCAA titles at 800-meters, one indoors in 2007 and one outdoors in 2006.
The Lakewood, Wash. product said “I just got pulled along. It was just good, old fun racing, honestly. You go up against someone who is quote-unquote a giant (in this sport) and you don't know what's going to happen, you just try and go with it. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but this is such a higher start than I've ever had before, so I'm just excited for what's to come.”
Two more top-10 times late in the day came from redshirt freshman Hannah Derby in her first official collegiate 800-meters, and fifth-year senior Aaron Nelson in his first race since 2015 NCAA West Prelims. Derby, the four-time Washington state champ at 400-meters, ran the 800m in 2:09.05, putting herself seventh on the top-10 list. Nelson, the indoor school record-holder for 5k, opened his season in the 3k today, and ran a 17-second PR of 8:01.02, moving to No. 5 on that list.
UW showed plenty of muscle in the field events as well. Jensen and sophomore Josh Gordon both finished what they started on Friday to complete two of the top-five heptathlons in school history. After PRs in three of four events on Friday, Jensen was upset after running 8.78 seconds in the 60m hurdles to start day two, despite that being just off his 8.76 PR. But he would step up huge in the next event, the pole vault, clearing 15-5, when his previous best indoors or out was just 14-2 ½. He finished the final 1,000-meter run in 2:48.15, a five second PR, to finish with 5,457 points, an improvement of 498 points from his lifetime best. That score will put Jensen 16th nationally, with the top-16 reaching nationals.
Gordon had never completed a heptathlon, but made the most of his first, as he completed a two-day total of 5,267 points to go to the No. 5 spot on the top-10 list. He started today running 8.58 seconds in the 60m hurdles, the pole vaulted 13-5 ¼, a PR by nearly two feet, and he closed with a thousand meter run of 2:41.79.
In the triple jump, Casey Burns got his 2016 campaign off to a strong start with a sixth attempt leap of 50-feet, 10.25-inches. Last year, Burns had a best of just 48-2 ¾ indoors, before having his breakthrough performance at the Pac-12 Championships outdoors, going 51-8 ½ to take second-place and move to No. 2 outdoors. He now moves to No. 2 indoors as well, as his last two attempts were his two best; attempt five went 50-3 ½. Also getting PRs in the horizontal jumps today were Kate Adler, who went 18-4 ¼ on her sixth jump, a career-best indoors or out, and Savannah Burr, who had a triple jump of 38-feet even.
Head Coach Greg Metcalf considered the weekend one of the best he's seen from his squad in the Dempsey.
“We went over the numbers, and since the doors of the Dempsey opened, you look at our top-10 lists and just compare us to us, and I think that's as good a day as we've had,” said the 14th-year head coach. “You go one step further and say if the NCAA Championships were next weekend, how many kids that competed today would get into the meet, and we would have qualified a handful to that meet which is incredibly hard to do. So every meet the goal is to get a little bit better and today I think our team was significantly better than it was two weeks ago. So what progress can we make in another two and four weeks? But I love the energy of this group and today was very fun.”
A couple more top-10 marks were nearly had in the throws, as senior Frank Catelli was just off his PR in the shot put, and sophomore Carey Campbell had another huge PR in the weight throw. Catelli was second overall with a toss of 59-6 ¾; he ranks sixth on the list right now with his 2015 best of 59-10 ½. Campbell, who had a big PR just two weeks ago, again upped the ante with a weight throw of 57-5 ¾, more than three feet past the two-week-old PR, and just six inches away from the 10th spot on the record list.
In the sprints, a number of Dawgs made a lot of progress from the opener, and picked up personal-bests. Sophomore Sierra Peterson made the 60-meter finals, taking fourth overall with a top time in the prelims of 7.56 seconds. Alexis Ford had a new indoor PR of 56.81, and in the men's quarter mile, Jacopo Spano had a solid 48.07 time in his first open 400 in college.
Senior Quadelle Satterwhite opened up at 60-meters, running 6.86 seconds to take third in the finals. Spano posted a 6.91 time in the prelims, and Travis Marshall had a best of 6.96 seconds in the final.
Chris Williams picked up an overall victory in the 60-meter hurdles, clocking 7.91 seconds in the final. Sophomore Eric Simpson also worked his way into the hurdles final, running a time of 8.26 seconds in the prelim, just .01 off his PR. One more win came from the women's 4x400-meter relay, as the team of Krista Armstead, Morganne Hill, Ford, and Peterson combined for a 3:47.75 victory.
In the always eventful pole vault, the Huskies had the last three vaulters standing, with Jax Thoirs running to the north and Kristina Owsinski and Diamara Planell Cruz going south on the parallel runways. Thoirs, fourth at the NCAA Indoor meet a year ago, got himself right back into the NCAA conversation with a third-attempt make of 17-11 today. Sophomore Lev Marcus and the senior Williams also both cleared 17-1, improvements over their outing two weeks ago. Freshman Chase Smith also had an impressive clearance of 16-7 ¼.
Jax Thoirs celebrates after a big clearance in the vault. He moved to No. 3 in the NCAA with a 17-11 clearance.
The women's vault came down to Owsinski and Planell Cruz as it often has the past three years. For the second straight meet, Owsinski had a third-attempt make at 14-2 to get the win, but fell just short of attempts at the indoor school record. Planell Cruz had a pole snap on her late in the day, but came right back to clear a season-best 14-0 on her very next attempt, which jumps her up to No. 12 in the nation currently. Junior Elizabeth Quick also had a season-best of 13-6 ¼, which matches her indoor PR, and sophomore Kaitlin Zinsli had an indoor best of 12-6 ¼.
Two weeks from now will bring another big opportunity in the form of the Husky Classic, which the Dempsey will host on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12-13.
