University of Washington
Husky Classic
Women's Vaulters Soar After Teammate Goes Down
February 14, 2016 | Track & Field
Husky Classic
Dempsey Indoor, Friday-Saturday, February 12-13
Complete Results | Flotrack Archived Video
SEATTLE – When one of the worst moments in sports hit one of their own teammates, Husky women's pole vaulters Diamara Planell Cruz and Elizabeth Quick supported her in the best way they could in the moment, by jumping for new lifetime-bests, and all but clinching spots to the NCAA Indoor Championships. That they will have to go without First Team All-American teammate Kristina Owsinski, who suffered a significant Achilles tendon injury, alongside them, made for quite an emotional day for the tight-knit vaulters, who swept the top three spots at the Pac-12 Championships last spring.
The highs and lows in the women's pole vault was just one out of numerous storylines from the Husky Classic, which wrapped up in the Dempsey today and saw the Huskies compile 11 new marks for the indoor top-10 lists, with a school-record-tying performance from Chris Williams in the 60m hurdles, and Planell Cruz in the pole vault.
Owsinski, the outdoor school record-holder and defending Pac-12 Champion, had cleared the bar of 14-1 ¼ today, as had Planell Cruz, along with Quick which was a huge PR by six inches already for Quick. With the bar 14-3 ¼, Owsinski started her run, but went down after one step with the Achilles injury. Planell Cruz and Quick had to go from concern for their teammate who had left with the training staff, to refocusing on vaulting themselves 14-feet in the air.
Quick, who has been on the verge of nationals but hadn't quite made it, said to herself “If Kristina can't go to nationals I had better take her place” and she made another PR of 14-3 ¼, a height that has never not made the NCAA meet. Planell Cruz, fourth at the 2015 NCAA Indoor meet, also made that bar, and then on a third attempt, she made it clean over 14-5 ¼, a new lifetime-best indoors or out, and a new school record, surpassing the 14-3 ½ mark held by Kate Soma from 2005. Quick's mark is now the No. 3 clearance in school history indoors.
“We have great kids on our team and I'm incredibly proud of who they are as people,” said Head Coach Greg Metcalf. “Kristina Owsinski has always been a great first class teammate. She is jumping great again today, and maybe she and Diamara both break our school record today. Unfortunately, injuries are part of athletics, and it just guts you when it happens to someone like Kristina, but she comes back out here to the team meeting and celebrates her teammates and she handles herself like an absolutely wonderful young woman. That's why she's a great athlete. Hopefully she gets all the way back from this and is on a runway again in the not too distant future, but to see what Liz and Diamara did after that, it was one of the greatest moments of Coach Pat Licari's career.”
The day started with a bang early for senior Chris Williams, who was quick and clean over the hurdles on his way to tying to school record of 7.82 seconds held by Dana Hall from 1991, in a time that was converted from 55-meters. Williams, whose previous PR was 7.84, has long been chasing that mark, and was finally able to equal it today. He had chances to surpass it in the semis and finals but hit hurdles in those runs and had to settle for sharing the school record for the day.
Also coming out of the gate quick this morning was junior Kennadi Bouyer, who ran the second-fastest preliminary 60-meter dash of 7.38 seconds, and in the semis she went 7.35 to match her PR and again come in just .01 seconds shy of the school record. She had another shot in the final, but leaned across in 7.36 seconds, again coming tantalizingly close. One PR of note in the dash was Cydnicia Wade, who ran 7.76 seconds in the prelims.
A couple more near misses on the school records front came from senior Baylee Mires in the 800-meters, and both Izaic Yorks and Colby Gilbert in the 3,000-meters. Mires just missed on breaking her own mark of 2:05.14 as she ran her first open 800m of the season in a time of 2:05.19, putting her 17th on the NCAA descending order list.
Yorks and Gilbert, running in the same race after Yorks broke the 800m record and Gilbert ran a sub-four-minute mile two weeks ago, were one-two in the top heat of the 3k with two laps to go. Yorks was just outleaned for the win at the line but still turned in another outstanding time of 7:50.20 that puts him sixth nationally in that event. Gilbert was right behind in fourth overall in 7:50.96, and he goes to No. 9 and should punch a return NCAA Indoor trip as well. The two were just a shade off Gilbert's own school record of 7:49.25 set last year.
Izaic Yorks finishing up the 3k in 7:50.20, moving to No. 2 on the UW top-10 list.
The top heat of the women's 3,000-meters also had two of the new top-10 marks, as sophomore Anna Maxwell was 11th overall but fifth among collegiate athletes in a PR of 9:12.38, putting her sixth in school history, while sophomore Katie Knight also had a PR of 9:16.31 for the new No. 8 time. Junior Maddie Meyers did not get a PR in the race, but had a still solid 9:16.00, with Coach Metcalf saying that never before had three Huskies run that fast in the same year, let alone same race.
The Dempsey saw some history today as the 100th different man to break four-minutes in the mile came through in a time of 3:57.38. David Elliott of Boise State got the honor, but Husky junior Blake Nelson nearly joined the group as well. Nelson had been close on prior occasions, running 4:02.69 two weeks ago and owning a PR of 4:01.72, but he got even closer today, battling to the line less than a second away from his goal, with a new PR of 4:00.68, which puts him eighth in school history.
Eleanor Fulton ran another sub 3:40 women's mile, taking sixth in the top heat in 4:39.32, and in the previous heat, sophomore Amy-Eloise Neale earned a PR of 4:43.84. Grace Hodge and Joey Bosserman also had big personal-bests earlier in the day, going 4:56.07 and 4:56.80, respectively, their first times under five minutes. Another big PR came from Mason Fletcher in the men's 800-meters who went 1:52.61. Senior Derrick Daigre had the best time for the men in 1:51.81, a good sign of progress for the former Pac-12 Champ.
Senior Krista Armstead led the way for the quarter-milers today with a big PR, indoors or out, of 55.49 seconds, fifth overall in the 400-meters, and also the No. 5 time in school history. She also anchored the Husky 4x400m relay which ran a season-best 3:44.37, also good for fifth on the top-10 list. Alexis Ford, Mires, and Carolyn Birkenfeld also ran on that group. Birkenfeld turned in a 56.00 PR in the open 400-meters earlier, just missing the top-10 list by .01 seconds.
The men's 4x400m relay closed out the night with a victory, as Quadelle Satterwhite, Andrew Brown, Jacopo Spano, and Andrew Prentice got the victory in 3:11.71, the best time for the 4x4 indoors since 2013. Brown was fourth overall in the open 400-meters earlier in 47.90.
In the women's triple jump, the Dawgs got a huge breakthrough performance from junior Savannah Burr, who just two weeks ago reached 38-feet on the mark for the first time. Then today, on her second attempt, she added nearly another full foot, going 38-11 ½. But that wasn't all, as Burr managed to add yet one more full foot on her fifth attempt, going 39-11 ¼, adding nearly two feet to her PR in one huge day, and earning the No. 8 spot in school history.
Senior All-American Jax Thoirs won a battle with Big 12 champ Reese Watson of Texas in the men's pole vault, as Thoirs made it over a season-best 17-11 ¾ today on a second attempt, then had the bar raised all the way to 18-8 ¼, but he couldn't tackle that one. Watson went 17-9 ¾ for second, while Husky sophomore Lev Marcus made 16-8, as did redshirt freshman Blaise Black, a PR for Black.
"We showed that we are closing in on becoming a very good track team," said Metcalf. "Chris ties our school record, Kennadi and Baylee both had near misses, Blake Nelson flirts with four minutes today and Eleanor is running consistent miles and a breakathrough is coming. Izaic and Colby punched their tickets to the show. We're inching closer to Birmingham and hopefully we're going to put together a group that can go there and do something great."
The Birmingham in question is the site of the NCAA Indoor Championships, now just a month away. First up is the UW Indoor Open on Sunday which will feature a few Huskies in action, but the final big weekend will come in two weeks when the annual MPSF Championships return to close out the Dempsey schedule on Feb. 26-27.
Players Mentioned
