Huskies Post Prelim Qualifiers At Payton Jordan

Saturday, April 22

Stanford, CA

All Day

University of Washington

Payton Jordan Invitational

April 22, 2023 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

STANFORD, Calif. – In the second heat of the women's 1,500-meters today at Stanford's Payton Jordan Invitational, Anna Gibson, Sophie O'Sullivan, and Madison Heisterman all made their season debuts at the distance. The trio went 1-2-3 in their heat in likely NCAA Prelim qualifying times to take solid first steps.

Gibson and Heisterman have each made the NCAA Outdoor semis in the 1,500-meters in recent years and O'Sullivan was a Pac-12 finalist a year ago and a 1,500m quarterfinalist.

They went 1-2-3 in their heat today. Gibson won the heat in 4:16.94, O'Sullivan was right behind in 4:17.46, a personal-best by a tenth of a second, and Heisterman came right behind in 4:18.04. It was a strong return for Heisterman, who had not raced in over three months since the opening indoor meet in January.

Those times should likely secure all three spots to NCAA West Prelims, though nothing is assured with several weeks remaining in the regular season.

On the men's side, Will Laird made his official in-uniform Husky debut and posted a time of 3:50.50. Julia David-Smith also ran unattached today, her first competition since suffering a knee injury last spring, and she took second in her heat in 4:30.33.

Closing things out was Carley Thomas in her first 800-meters of the outdoor season. She took second in the top heat, going 2:04.20, which would move her into the top-25 nationally based on marks entering the weekend.

Next week will bring another split squad as one group heads to the Penn Relays, another travels to the Fresno State Invitational, and a third goes to Arizona's Desert Heat Classic.