Shot Putters, Quarter-Milers Make Strides At Invite

Saturday, January 27

Seattle, WA

TBD

University of Washington

UW Invitational

January 27, 2018 | Track & Field

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By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – The month of January often reveals strengths for a track team that will carry it all the way through June, and as the month's competition wrapped up today with the UW Invitational, the Huskies have a number of event areas showing strength and depth. Washington's shot putters and quarter-milers impressed today in the Dempsey, as a long weekend of track resulted in Meet and Dempsey Records and world-leading marks.

Hey @CoachMetcalf any thoughts on this weekends Dempsey action? pic.twitter.com/XGPLwHiALK
— UW Track (@UWTrack) January 28, 2018

For the weekend, Washington produced seven new marks for the indoor top-10 lists, three on Friday and four more today. The four new marks today came from Jack Lembcke and Jonah Wilson in the men's shot put, Ryan Croson in the men's 400-meters and Raquel Tjernagel in the women's 400-meters.

Lembcke continued the strong start to his junior comeback season, as he added two more feet to his PR that he had increased by three feet just two weeks ago. Today the South Dakotan put out the best throw by a Husky in 20 years, throwing 61-feet, 7.50-inches. No Husky had surpassed 60-feet indoors since Ben Lindsey set the school record of 65-5 ¼ in 1998. Lembcke went from seventh to fourth on the record-list with that throw and now is 21st nationally.

Also breaking into the top-10 list was freshman Jonah Wilson who added eleven inches to his season opener, throwing 57-8 ½ to move to No. 9 on the Husky top-10 list.

In the men's 400-meter dash, Washington went 1-2, with junior Ryan Croson running a big lifetime-best indoors or outdoors to take the victory in 47.29 seconds. His previous indoor best was 48.01 and he had an outdoor best of 47.54. Croson now climbs to sixth in Husky history indoors with the fastest mark since 2012. In second-place was senior Michael Thomas, who ran an indoor PR of 48.05. Freshman Evan Mafilas was also fourth for the Dawgs today in 48.46 seconds.

On the women's side of the sprints, junior transfer Raquel Tjernagel raced her first open 400-meters of the season and edged into the Husky top-10 as she clocked a 55.79 to finish eighth, third among collegiate athletes, and move to No. 9 in UW history. Senior Hanna Tarleton also had an impressive PR with a 55.92 run that had her in the top-10 at the No. 10 spot for about an hour until Tjernagel's new time bumped her down one place to 11th.

The women showed their 400-meter depth as well by winning the 4x400m relay at the end of the evening, without either Tjernagel or Tarleton in the mix. A group of Carly Lester, Darhian Mills, Hannah Derby, and Imani Apostol got the win in 3:47.29. Mills and Apostol are the two returners off last year's school record-setting 4x400m relay that became the first Husky group to reach NCAA Outdoors.

Ryan Croson takes the 400m title in 47.29! A huge PR and he breaks into the top-10 list at #??6???? Michael Thomas also a big indoor PR of 48.05! pic.twitter.com/c0ePJ1RQcA
— UW Track (@UWTrack) January 28, 2018

As usual, the Dempsey saw some blazingly fast distance races today, including perhaps one of the most impressive individual runs in the building's history. World Championship finalist Sifan Hassan who runs for the Nike Oregon Project, shattered meet and facility records that had been held by Olympic silver medalist Sally Kipyego (Meet; 8:47.91) and Olympic finalist Kate Grace (Facility; 8:47.26). Hassan covered 3,000-meters in the Dempsey today in 8:34.45, fastest time run by anyone in the world this year. And she pulled away from American legend and 2017 NYC Marathon Champion Shalane Flanagan, who broke both Meet and Dempsey records herself with an 8:43.28 time for second-place.

Leading the distance group for the home team was senior Maddie Meyers, who was the top collegiate finisher in the women's mile, right behind a pair of post-collegiate runners, with a time of 4:39.08. Meyers had just ran 1,600-meters last night to help the UW DMR win in the eighth-fastest time in school history, but doubled back impressively to finish less than a second off her mile PR of 4:38.59 set two years ago.

Senior Anna Maxwell also finished fifth overall in the women's mile in 4:43.39, with junior Emily Hamlin posting a 4:52.12 and freshman Camila David-Smith breaking five-minutes at 4:58.15.

In the men's mile, five men added their names to UW's lengthy list of sub-four-minute milers, led by another Nike Oregon Project pro, Yomif Kejelcha, who won in 3:56.95. Husky senior Colby Gilbert had UW's top time at 4:02.54. Junior Fred Huxham earned a mile PR of 4:05.26 and redshirt freshman Nate Beamer ran 4:09.79.

The men's 3,000-meters saw a couple more solid PRs today, as sophomore Gavin Parpart ran 8:11.99 and Julius Diehr came through in 8:14.01.

For the second meet in a row, the Huskies won the men's pole vault, but after Chase Smith took the Indoor Preview, today Lev Marcus got the win at 17-1 ¾. Redshirt freshman Taylor Barnes made a PR height of 16-8, a bar that Smith and Blaise Black also cleared.

In the short sprints, sophomore Khalil Winfrey and junior Sarah Stavig both made the 60-meter dash finals. Stavig was fifth in the final at 7.66 seconds after running 7.62 in the prelims. Winfrey ran 6.90 in both the prelim and final, also winding up fifth.