Yorks Is NCAA Runner-Up In 1,500m Final
June 11, 2016 | Track & Field
NCAA OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Eugene, Ore. - Hayward Field - June 8-11
Complete Schedule | Live Results | Saturday Start Lists
Day One Recap: Thoirs Takes Fifth, Yorks To Final
Day Two Recap: Three Dawgs Make First NCAA Outdoor Finals
SATURDAY - WOMEN
Broadcast: 3:30 - 6:00 pm live on ESPN
3:41pm - Neale - 1,500m Final
3:54pm - Prouse - 3,000m Steeplechase Final
4:47pm - Mires - 800m Final
EUGENE, Ore. – Izaic Yorks has just about done it all in his 2015-16 senior season for the Husky men's track team. He went hard after the one thing he wanted most today, an NCAA individual title, but fell just over a second shy in one of the fastest 1,500-meter finals in years. Yorks finished second in his final race as a Dawg after leading for much of the final at Hayward Field, earning his seventh All-America honor and helping the Huskies tie for 18th as a team.
Yorks' finish was the best ever by a Husky in the 1,500-meters, and the best by a Husky man in an NCAA Outdoor track final since Ryan Brown won the 2006 NCAA title at 800-meters.
The NCAA Men's Championship wrapped up today in Eugene with Florida taking the team title followed by LSU and Texas A&M. The women's NCAA Championship will wrap tomorrow with three Huskies entered in finals on the track. The eight points Yorks earned Washington an 18th-place tie as a team, combining with the four points earned by Jax Thoirs in the pole vault for 12 total. That was UW's best team finish since 2010 and first Top-25 finish outdoors since 2011.
The Husky men's cross country and track and field program put together perhaps its best year ever in combined NCAA Championship performances, with an eighth-place finish at cross country in the fall, a sixth-place finish at Indoors, and now the 18th-place showing Outdoors. Yorks was at the center of all of that, leading the team in the fall, and scoring big points indoors and outdoors on the track.
The 12-men in the 1,500m final sprinted out over the first 100-meters to take position, with Yorks settling into second behind NCAA Indoor mile champion Henry Wynne of Virginia. But halfway through the second lap, Yorks took the lead, and started to string the field out early. The third 400-meters was led by Yorks in a 57.85-second split, the fastest of the race to that point, and he went into the bell lap in the lead followed by Wynne, then Oregon's Sam Prakel, and Akron's Clayton Murphy, the NCAA Indoor 800m champion.
Wynne took the lead with around 250 meters to go, with Yorks not slowing right behind him, and around the final turn Yorks pulled back up alongside Wynn and started to inch ahead. But Murphy came outside both of them and had serious speed left which Yorks and Wynne could not counter. Murphy powered to the finish in 3:36.38, with Yorks holding off Wynne for second-place in 3:38.06 for Yorks and 3:38.35 for Wynne.
Yorks has gone wire to wire to win every meaningful race he has run this outdoor season, and despite windy conditions at Hayward today, he said that was still the plan.
“I was hoping for that,” he said, “but it didn't work out. In retrospect, maybe hanging back a little bit out of the wind would have been nice, but then again you never really know. For me, that was what we talked about all year, so we just went and tried and gave it a shot.”
Murphy's winning time was the fastest at the NCAA Championships since 1987 and third-fastest ever since the event switched to the 1,500-meters from the mile in 1976. Last year, the winning time was just 3:54.96 in a tactical battle.
Yorks said he knew that Murphy would have a great kick, but was surprised that he and Wynne had not been able to open a larger gap on the Akron junior.
“I was expecting him to come,” said the Lakewood, Wash. product, “but I wasn't expecting his kick to be as effective as it was. For me and Henry we were just sucking a good bit of wind up front, and that was effecting us slowly so that we couldn't cover the move in the end. Really good on Clayton for running to his strengths and kind of staying out of harm's way so he can better utilize his kick.”
Yorks finishes his remarkable Husky career as a seven-time All-American, three First Team honors, three Second Team honors, and one in cross country. He is the Husky school record-holder in the mile (3:53.89), the 1,500m (3:37.74), the indoor 800m (1:47.89), and on the distance medley relay (9:27.19).
All of that was just in three years, as Yorks joined the Huskies in 2013 as a transfer from the University of Portland. After the race, Yorks was full of gratitude for Coach Metcalf welcoming him to Seattle after a rough start to his college career.
“When I think of UW and wearing the uniform one last time, for me it's synonymous with second chances,” said Yorks. “When I left my first college to transfer, and I had a rolled ankle and was out for six months, and I was really anemic and there were no programs that would take me. A friend of mine said why don't you call Coach Metcalf and talk to him and I did and one of the first things he said in our first conversation was, 'I believe you'll break four minutes and I would love to take you.' So to wear the uniform and do that means so much because that man has single-handedly given me a shot to do this professionally and he's impacted my life in ways that I can't even count.”
The last Husky in action tonight was sophomore Colby Gilbert, competing in his first NCAA Outdoor 5,000-meter final. Gilbert, who broke the Washington school record this season in a victory at the Pac-12 Championships, settled around 14th for the first half of the race, but just a second or two behind the leaders. With two miles to go, Gilbert looked good and picked up a couple spots, getting up to a high of 10th with two laps to go. But when the top group of runners made one more big push, Gilbert was unable to go with them. He hung on to finish 13th overall in a time of 13:54.45, earning Second Team All-America honors to go with the two First Team honors he earned indoors and another from cross country in the fall.
Gilbert had been hoping for a podium spot so he was disappointed in the end to what was a breakout year for the sophomore. “I think I was a little tired. Around eight laps I felt like I was finishing, when I needed to be more up front with the guys and feeling a little better than I was,” Gilbert said. “This was the first full year for me competing at all three national championships, and I had a great season but I think I was just a little burned out for today, so I've just got to take a rest and move on.”
Washington Track & Field
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Day 3 of 4 – June 10, 2016
Eugene, Ore. – Hayward Field
Men's Results
1,500m Final: 2. Izaic Yorks, 3:38.06.
5,000m Final: 13. Colby Gilbert, 13:54.45.
