DMRs And Multis Spice Up UW Invitational

Friday, January 25

Seattle, WA

1:00 PM

University of Washington

UW Invitational

Photo by: Scott Eklund / Red Box Pictures

January 24, 2019 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

UW Invitational
Friday-Saturday, Jan. 25-26
Dempsey Indoor

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SEATTLE – The Dempsey heats up this weekend with one of the biggest and best annual meets in the nation, the UW Invitational. More Huskies will make their season debuts this weekend, and others will gravitate towards their main events after the rust-buster of the UW Indoor Preview two weeks back.

The first two-day meet of the season, action begins on Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. with the first multi-event competitions of the year continuing through to some loaded distance medley relay fields Friday night at 8:15 p.m. Then a full day of action Saturday starts up at 10 a.m.

Friday features the first men's heptathlon and women's pentathlon action this year, along with much-anticipated distance medley relays and the first 5,000-meter races of the season. Also Friday, in a change from year's past, the 60m hurdles will be held. The 200-meter dashes will also take place Friday night, as will the women's weight throw, both men's and women's high jumps, and the first of two flights of both men's and women's pole vault.

Saturday's action will reach a peak with a 90-minute window beginning at 3:50 p.m. with the finals of the 60-meter dashes, the top two heats of the mile runs, then the fastest single heats of the 400-meters, the 800-meters, the 3,000-meters, and the 4x400-meter relays to close out the meet at 5:20 p.m.

Also on Saturday, additional "invitational" sections will take place in the field events, including in the men's weight throw, the women's and men's shot put, and both pole vaults.

"We believe that this will be a great event for athletes, coaches, officials and spectators," said Head Coach Andy Powell. "Our mission is to foster an outstanding athlete experience to continue to be the premier venue for athletes to qualify for the NCAA Championships."

There will be a total of fifty-five college teams sending anywhere from one to forty athletes apiece to the Dempsey this weekend. Some of the top programs that will be represented in some form are Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, BYU, California, Minnesota, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Portland, Stanford, Texas, and Washington State.

Washington's Outlook - Friday

Friday's action should be highlighted by the distance medley relays, as the Huskies look to post marks that could stand the test of the top-16 times.

The Huskies will put out a top squad of Katie Rainsberger, Imani Apostol, Hannah Derby, and Lilli Burdon. Rainsberger and Burdon helped Oregon set the collegiate record two years ago in the event and Burdon anchored a NCAA title win last year. The Dawgs will also have two more talented groups competing along with teams from Oklahoms State, Stanford, BYU, Texas and Boise State. Olivia O'Keeffe, Carly Lester, Nicole Goecke and Shona McCulloch will be one foursome and Allie Schadler, Raquel Tjernagel, Kelly Makin, and Anna Maxwell will be a third team.

The men's DMR will race against squads from Stanford, Cal, and Washington State, and it will consist of Talon Hull, Evan Mafilas, Devan Kirk, and Mick Stanovsek. Another Husky DMR of Nate Beamer, Jason Palmer, Connor Morello, and Charles Beyer will also go.

The multis kick things off Friday afternoon, with four of seven men's events and all five women's events. Sophomore Hannah Rusnak and junior Elinor Jones Toutant will take on the pentathlon and sophomore Parker Kennedy will contest his first collegiate heptathlon. Rusnak ran one of the fastest 60m hurdles in school history two weeks ago, going 8.42 seconds, and also had a 200m PR of 25.16.

In Friday's hurdles action, freshmen Aaliyah Wilson and Karlee Stueckle will look to progress from their strong first meets along with junior Morganne Hill. Wilson went to No. 10 on the Husky top-10 list with her debut time of 8.61 seconds.

The 200-meters on Friday will feature Assa Kaba, Raquel Tjernagel, and Sarah Stavig on the women's side and a big group of Jason Palmer, Christian Young, Khalil Winfrey, Kemuel Santana, Kevin Liu, and Evan Mafilas for the men.

Cross country All-American Tibebu Proctor is entered in the 5k in what would be his first track race as a Dawg. Andrew Snyder is entered unattached, while Julius Diehr is in the top heat for the men as well. Chase Equall and Isaac Mohn go in the first heat. The women will have redshirt frosh Sarah Carter running her first 5k.

Friday field event highlights are led by senior Onyie Chibuogwu in the invitational flight of the women's weight throw, coming off a solid 61-0 PR in her return to action two weeks ago.

In the pole vault, Annika Dayton, coming off a 13-1 ½ clearance, is slated to jump in Friday's flight, as will Makenna Barton, Kim Kramers, and Monica Cohen. Joey Weiler will vault for the men on Friday.

Washington's Outlook - Saturday

The track gets going again on Saturday with the heptathlon hurdles leading into the 60-meter dash qualifying rounds. The Huskies will run Assa Kaba, as well as sophomore Olivia Ribera in her first meet of the season. Sarah Stavig and Aaliyah Wilson are among the eight auto advancers to the preliminary rounds. The men will have Khalil Winfrey in the prelims automatically with Jordan Lucas, Christian Young, Kevin Liu, running qualifying.

Later in the 400-meters, the sprints crew will run Morganne Hill, Chisom eke, Karlee Stueckle, Carly Lester, Raquel Tjernagel, and Imani Apostol. Evan Mafilas will be in the final 400m invitational section later in the meet, with earlier heats featuring Jason Palmer.

In the mid-distances, the first heat of the women's 800-meters has Mikelle Ackerley, Ashley Sande, and Erica Schroeder. Nicole Goecke races in the fourth heat, and Hannah Derby and Kelly Makin go in heat five. The men's fourth heat of the 800m will be one to watch, as Devan Kirk and Connor Morello, both coming off PRs two weeks back, will look to break 1:50 along with Mick Stanovsek and freshman Cass Elliott.

Not surprisingly, the mile fields are stacked on both sides. For the Dawgs, Raisnberger and Burdon will be in the invitational women's mile, coming back from the DMR the night before. Rainsberger ran an NCAA leading time of 4:37.30 two weeks ago, fifth in school history, and Burdon opened with a 4:42.16. Another heat features sophomore Allie Schadler and Olivia O'Keeffe and Shona McCulloch will both go in the third heat.

In the fast heat of the men's mile, Stanovsek is entered again, so likely will be either here or in the 800m top heat, but Talon Hull will get his first mile as a Dawg against a field that includes NCAA Champ Grant Fisher of Stanford, who just held off Hull for the Pac-12 Cross Country title last fall. Earlier mile heats will feature Nate Beamer, and freshman Alex Slenning.

A strong women's 3k field will include seniors Emily Hamlin and Anna Maxwell, as well as Izzi Batt-Doyle in her return to collegiate racing. The senior last ran in uniform at the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships and set PRs on the track in the 5,000m and 1,500m last spring unattached after coming back from injury. In the first heat of the 3k, Kiera Marshall and Hannah Waskom will look for a couple PRs.

The men's 3,000m will see some more members of UW's sixth-place NCAA cross country squad opening up their track seasons. Top-20 NCAA finisher Tanner Anderson is set to go in the invitational section along with senior Fred Huxham and sophomore Gavin Parpart.

In the field events, the top flights of the pole vault will have Chase Smith and Olivia Gruver both competing unattached once again, with Blaise Black and Zach Shugart suited up for the men and Allyson Ely jumping in the top section for the women.

Sophomore Jelani Heath is in the top flight of the women's long jump while Sam Richmond goes for the men. Sophomore Jaylen Taylor had an indoor PR of 48-2 two weeks ago and looks to build on that.

Junior Angel Nkwonta goes for the Dawgs in the women's shot put and freshman Makayla Kelby and sophomore Ginny Mehl will also throw unattached.

Sophomore Jonah Wilson was one of the big stories of the Preview as he PR'd by several feet and jumped to No. 4 in school history with a 61-foot toss. He'll now be in the invitational section of the men's shot, as will junior Jose Padilla. The men's weight throw will have Connor Jost and Elijah Mason looking to build on PRs they set at the Preview.