Dawgs Win Fourteen Events At Ken Shannon Invite

Saturday, May 5

Stanford, CA

All Day

University of Washington

Pac-12 Multi-Events Championships

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

May 05, 2018 | Track & Field

Complete Ken Shannon Results Pac-12 Heptathlon Day One Scores

By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – The Huskies hosted their lone outdoor home meet today at Husky Track, and tuned up for the postseason with wins in fourteen events at the annual Ken Shannon Invitational. Next week the postseason run will start with the Pac-12 Championships at Stanford, and several Huskies showed they're ready for the conference challenge.

Leave it to a home meet in Seattle to give the Dawgs some of the best weather they've seen this outdoor season, as temperatures got into the 60s and the sun stayed out for most of the afternoon.

Consistent tailwinds on the home stretch helped the Husky sprinters post some of their best times of the season.

Freshman Olivia Ribera won the women's 100-meter dash in a wind-aided 11.77 seconds while on the men's side, freshman Kevin Liu got the win out of the second heat with a wind-aided time of 10.61 seconds, just ahead of the 10.64 time Kemuel Santana ran to win the previous heat. Christian Young also ran 10.85 seconds and Evan Mafilas went 10.87, both with +2.2 mps winds. Sarah Stavig was fourth on the women's side at 12.13

In the 200-meters, Mafilas had a big PR to win in 21.35 seconds, with a legal wind behind him. Liu impressed again with a 21.39 time to win his third heat by nearly half a second and finish second overall. Ryan Croson went 21.41, a wind-legal PR, while Khalil Winfrey ran 21.61 and Young finished in 21.67, both PRs, and Jason Palmer clocked a 21.74 but with a +4.2 wind in his heat. The top women's 200-meter finisher was Imani Apostol in 24.52 seconds for fourth. Carolyn Birkenfeld also dropped down from 400-meters and won her heat in 24.84 seconds.

Senior Hanna Tarleton posted a new Husky top-10 mark today as she ran the open 400-meters for the first time outdoors and won by more than a second with a career-best 54.76, going into the No. 10 spot on the school record list.

Another win came from sophomore Darhian Mills as she took the 400-meter hurdles in 1:00.38, less than a tenth off her season-best. Sophomore Oscar Herrera clocked a PR for the second week in a row in the 400-meter hurdles as he finished fifth in 54.04 seconds. Morganne Hill had a wind-aided 100m hurdles time of 14.05 to take third in that race.

The Huskies also picked up victories in both the 4x100-meter relays with slightly new lineups. The women ran Stavig, Raquel Tjernagel, Apostol, and Ribera, and won in 46.21 seconds. The men went with Liu, Santana, Croson, and Winfrey and easily got the win in 40.70.

The highlight of the distance events was the men's 1,500-meters, where senior Johnathan Stevens got a win in his final home appearance and ran a big season-best of 3:47.87. Nick Laccinole was second in 3:50.28 and Nate Beamer was fourth in 3:51.84. On the women's side, redshirt freshman Nikki Zielinski finished fourth in the 3,000-meters in 9:53.20.

One of the top efforts today came from sophomore Annika Dayton, who PR'd once again in the pole vault, clearing 13-4 ¼ on her second attempt to get the victory. Senior Tori Franzen was third at 12-8 ¼ and Monica Cohen had a PR herself of a couple inches, with a make of 12-2 ½ on her first attempt.

The men's pole vault was the last event going today, and it finished with Zach Shugart just missing a couple attempts at 17-3, but he made 16-11 before that to get the win. Blaise Black was second with a make of 16-5 ¼ and Joey Weiler, competing unattached, also made 16-5 ¼ for a PR.

In the jumps, Mayson Douglass matched her outdoor season-best with a clearance of 5-5. Jelani Heath won the long jump but the jumpers were going into the wind most of the day. Heath had a best of 18-1.

In the throws, senior Gina Flint picked up a couple more victories in the shot put and discus in her last home meet as a Dawg. She threw 49-7 ¼ to win the shot put and then went 157-3 in the discus, both just off her season-bests. Sophomore Angel Nkwonta had a season-best shot put of 47-2 ¼ to take second. Freshman Ginny Mehl, competing unattached, had a solid afternoon with a third-place shot put finish at 43-5 and a second-place discus toss of 150-9.

Sophomore Connor Jost won the hammer throw on Friday and came back and won the shot put as well today, throwing 48-10 ¼. He was the only men's thrower to compete this weekend.

RUSNAK AT PAC-12 MULTIS: One Husky is already in the thick of Pac-12 Championships competition. That would be freshman Hannah Rusnak, who completed four of seven events today in the heptathlon, as the Pac-12 decathlon and heptathlon competitions began at Stanford.

Rusnak had an impressive first day of conference competition, as she sits sixth out of the 15 competitors and is the only non-junior or senior in the top-11. Rusnak's day one score of 3,104 points started with a 100m hurdles time of 14.27 seconds that ranked fifth in the field.

Rusnak then matched her high jump best at 5-0 ¼ and then moved up the standings with a third-place shot put finish at 39-5. She finished with a 200-meters season-best of 25.45 seconds that ranked eighth in that event.

Tomorrow Rusnak will look to finish her first collegiate heptathlon and possibly score some points for UW's team score if she can wind up in the top eight. The long jump, javelin, and 800-meters remain for Sunday.