Huskies Usher In Outdoors In West Seattle

Saturday, March 16

Seattle, WA

10:00 AM

University of Washington

Doris Heritage Distance Festival

March 16, 2019 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

Complete Results

SEATTLE – It was a perfect day for an outdoor opener for the Husky track squad which sent a couple dozen athletes over to West Seattle Stadium to take part in the Doris Heritage Distance Festival hosted by Seattle Pacific. The Dawgs got the ball rolling for the next three months with 13 event wins.

Washington's entries were mostly in the sprints and hurdles today, with a few vaulters and throwers also making the short road trip. The Husky sprinters swept wins in the men's and women's 100m, 200m, and 400m hurdles, along with wins in the men's 400m and 4x100m relay.

Also today, Washington's top vaulters Chase Smith and Olivia Gruver traveled to the Trojan Invitational in L.A. to open their outdoor seasons. Smith made a slight outdoor personal-best of 17-5 1/2 to take second today with a mark that should easily qualify for NCAA Prelims, however Gruver missed her attempts at the opening bar.

The men's 4x100m relay cruised to a win in a strong season-opening time of 40.56 made up of Jordan Lucas, Kemuel Santana, Evan Mafilas, and Khalil Winfrey. Santana would add two more wins, running 10.87 to win the 100-meters and then going 21.65 to win the 200-meters, both going into headwinds. Winfrey was second in the 200m in 21.93 and Jason Palmer was third in 22.01 with Lucas fourth in 22.09.

Palmer was the winner in the 400-meters in a time of 48.96 seconds. In the 400m hurdles, Oscar Herrera opened his season with a win and a PR in a time of 53.89 seconds.

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— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) March 17, 2019

On the women's side, freshman Aaliyah Wilson easily won the women's 100-meters in 12.04 seconds with Assa Kaba second in 12.39. Kaba then won the 200-meters in 25.22. Sarah Stavig led the Huskies in the quarter mile, taking second in 57.51 seconds.

The women went 1-4 in the 400m hurdles. Darhian Mills won in 59.46 seconds, her best time since 2017 and the best opener of her career. Senior Carly Lester was second in 59.96, freshman Karlee Stueckle was third in 1:00.88, and junior Morganne Hill was fourth in 1:00.98.

The Huskies won both 5,000-meter runs as Andrew Snyder won the men's race by nearly ten seconds in 14:44.41. Redshirt freshman Sarah Carter won the women's by 25 seconds in 17:30.30.

Redshirt frosh Isaac Green won the men's 1,500-meters in 3:55.58, while freshman Alex Slenning, competing unattached, won the 3,000m steeplechase in 9:16.88.

Connor Jost opened up just short of his PR in the men's hammer throw as he won with a best of 176-6. Katherine Taylor was third in the women's javelin going 136-10. Joey Weiler was second in the men's pole vault with a make of 15-5. Women's pole vault results were not available by the end of the night.