Women's 4x4 Breaks Longstanding Record At Mt. SAC

Saturday, April 15

Walnut, Calif.

TBD

University of Washington

Mt. SAC Relays

April 15, 2017 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – Four straight days of competition in some form or another for the Husky track and field squads came to a close today as the Dawgs wrapped their stay at the Mt. SAC Relays and the Beach Invitational, but not before a dramatic finale from the Husky women's 4x400-meter relay, which shattered the UW school record that had stood since 1998.

The 4x4 invite section came late in the day at the historic Mt. SAC Relays, with the Huskies saving their best for last. A foursome of Whitney Diggs, Imani Apostol, Darhian Mills, and Laura Anuakpado went four times around the track in 3:36.50, breaking the 1998 school record of 3:37.68 by more than a second. Anuakpado, who ran a 54.25 open 400m earlier in the day, second-fastest in school history, and Apostol were both split unofficially at 53.2 seconds.

Moments later, the men's 4x400m relay squad also ran their fastest time in several years, as Lucas Strong, Jacopo Spano, Michael Thomas, and Ryan Croson went 3:08.45, just missing the 10th spot on the Husky all-time list by .06 seconds.

All told this week, the Huskies had nine new marks for the Top-10 lists, eight coming from the women's side including the school records from the relay and in the hammer throw on Friday from Onyie Chibuogwu.

Kristina Owsinski and Elizabeth Quick, the last two Pac-12 pole vault champions, both made big season's-bests todays at the Long Beach Invite. Owsinski, since returning from an Achilles tendon tear, had cleared between 13-10 ½ and 13-11 ¾ on four occasions, the most recent being just two days ago, but today she broke the 14-foot mark for the first time since her return, making 14-3 ¼ just two inches away from her outdoor school record. Quick matched Owsinski with a make at the same height, which gave her a new outdoor PR while matching her indoor career-best. Quick moves up from No. 5 to No. 3 on the outdoor top-10.

Tori Franzen also raised her career-best to 12-9 ½ in the vault, and Kaitlin Zinsli also cleared that height today while Annika Dayton made 12-3 ½. Mayson Douglass made 5-3 in the women's high jump as well while Kate Adler went 17-7 in the long jump. In the men's pole vault, sophomore Chase Smith and freshman Zach Shugart both cleared 17-0 3/4, a new PR for Shugart, and making him the fourth Husky to clear that height this season. Blaise Black, who made 17 feet earlier in the week, cleared 16-6 3/4.

In the 400-meters, sophomore Ryan Croson was the overall winner out of 86 competitors as he clocked a new lifetime-best of 47.54 seconds. Junior Michael Thomas finished 10th with a 48.30, while freshman Jason Palmer ran 49.42. On the women's side, senior Whitney Diggs ran her best 400-meters yet as a Dawg, going 55.66 seconds, while junior Carolyn Birkenfeld posted a 55.89, her second time under 56 seconds this season.

Redshirt freshman Sarah Stavig won her 100-meters heat in 11.85 seconds, and Cydnicia Wade won her heat as well in 12.16. Redshirt freshman Jordan Lucas posted a 10.81, a wind-legal personal-best. Junior Eric Simpson ran a season-best 14.49 in the 110m hurdles to finish seventh overall and freshman Oscar Herrera had a season-best 54.62 in the 400-meter hurdles.

In the throws, a couple true freshmen took some big steps. Angel Nkwonta, in just her third collegiate shot put, went 48-6 to jump into the Husky top-10 list at No. 9 all-time. That was a full four-foot improvement over her previous season-best. Jose Padilla notched himself a new discus PR with a toss of 164-feet, 3-inches today.

A day after running one of the fastest times in the NCAA in the 1,500-meters, Amy-Eloise Neale doubled back at Long Beach today and ran an 800-meters. Neale took second in her heat in a new PR of 2:07.84. Mason Fletcher ran the 800-meters for the second day in a row, and had a second-straight season's-best, going 1:51.32 today while Connor Morello ran 1:51.97 a day after running the 1,500m.

A few Huskies remained at El Camino College for the Mt. SAC Relays today, with senior Laura Anuakpado leading the way with the new No. 2 400-meter time in school history. Anuakpado, running the open 400-meters for the first time outdoors this year, posted a 54.25 in the invitational section.

The men's 4x100-meter relay also raced at Mt. SAC on Saturday, running a time of 40.81 to finish 12th overall.