Track Adds Pieces On Long Day At Stanford, Texas

Friday, March 30

Stanford, CA

TBD

University of Washington

Stanford Invitational

March 30, 2018 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

STANFORD INVITATIONAL
March 30-31 - Stanford, Calif.
Live Results | Schedule (PDF)
Live Stream: Flotrack ($)

TEXAS RELAYS
March 30-31 - Austin, Texas
Meet Headquarters | Live Results | Schedule
TV: Longhorn Network

SEATTLE – It was a long and productive day starting early Central time and ending late Pacific time for the Husky track squad, competing at two major meets today, one group of sprinters at the Texas Relays and the rest of the Dawgs at the Stanford Invitational, which saw season openers for many of the distance runners.

It was the men's 5k runners that turned in perhaps the day's best performances at Stanford tonight, led by senior Andrew Gardner who ran a new career-best 5,000-meters of 13:56.77, which grabs the No. 10 spot in school history for the former NCAA steeplechase qualifier. Just a second behind Gardner was Fred Huxham, who ran an impressive season-opener of 13:57.72. In the heat right before Gardner and Huxham, redshirt freshman Gavin Parpart pulled away on the final lap to win his heat in 14:03.02.

All guts from Gavin Parpart! @UWTrack pic.twitter.com/1CN5Ak1Vh2
— FloTrack (@FloTrack) March 31, 2018

Other strong performances from the long and mid-distance runners included junior Anna Maxwell posting a speedy 4:21.47 time in the 1,500-meters. Freshman Allie Schadler also had a nice opener at 4:25.84, and Mikelle Ackerlery stepped up from her usual 800-meters and impressed in 4:28.49.

Nate Beamer took third in the second section of the men's 1,500-meters, getting another strong opener at 3:46.46. Nick Laccinole also ran a 3:54.92 earlier in the day.

An earlier men's 5k heat included three Dawgs, with true freshman Thomas Nobbs getting the best time in his first official race in uniform. Nobbs ran 14:20.94, with Julius Diehr coming through in 14:28.64, and Andy Snyder running 14:32.27. On the women's side, junior Emily Hamlin opened with a 16:28.03 5k time, and in earlier heats, freshman Camila David-Smith was third in her 5k section in 16:50.01, while redshirt freshman Nikki Zielinski ran her first track race of the year in 17:14.29 and freshman Hannah Waskom finished in 17:32.13.

A few sprinters headed to Stanford rather than Texas, with 400m hurdlers Carly Lester and Darhian Mills taking second and third in the event. Lester broke 60-seconds for the second time this season, going 59.58, and Mills improved on her season opener as she ran 1:00.31. Morganne Hill also took 11th in 1:02.23. Mills also ran 14.23 in the 100m hurdles into a headwind and Hill ran 14.66.

In the field at Stanford, Jose Padilla took fourth in the men's discus with a best toss of 173-11 while freshman Jonah Wilson was eighth at 164-2. Katie Wardsworth went 171-9 in the women's hammer while Connor Jost threw 160-9 in the men's hammer.

Denham Patricelli led the men's javelin crew once again, placing fifth in the invite at 210-4. Freshman Draven Nevarez made his Husky debut with a solid mark of 202-3, and Jacob Wachtendonk threw 183-5 today. The other throwing event held today was women's shot, where Gina Flint threw 44-6 ¼ and Angel Nkwonta threw 43-11 ¾.

One big PR today came in the women's pole vault, as senior Tori Franzen had a two-inch best, making 12-11 ½ on her first attempt. Annika Dayton made 12-5 ½ today with Candace Ho and Monica Cohen both clearing 11-11 ¾.

Texas Relays

Down at the prestigious Texas Relays today, the sprinters continued to progress and see what relay combinations will best fit together once championship season rolls around.

There were only a few individual races for the Dawgs today. In the 100-meter dash, Jordan Lucas had a new wind-aided best as he crossed in 10.73 seconds, with a +3.8 tailwind. Khalil Winfrey's wind was not as generous, as it was a legal 0.8, as he came through in 10.84. Freshman Olivia Ribera had a 11.85-second time that would rank 10th in school history but it was slightly wind-aided at 2.6.

The women's 4x100m relay of Jelani Heath, Iman Brown, Imani Apostol, and Olivia Ribera posted a 46.53 second time today. The men's 4x1 relay clocked a 41.51 second time while the men's 4x400m relay finished in 3:12.62. The women's 4x4 was disqualified for a step off the track.

Senior Hanna Tarleton was in the invitational section of the 400-meter hurdles, and had another solid run, but did not improve on her season-best, as she took fourth overall in 59.20.

One of the best efforts was the only one in the field today, as Heath had an impressive long jump mark of 19-7 ½, which was wind-aided by the smallest margin at +2.1.