Dawgs Close Up Dempsey With String Of PRs

Saturday, February 24

Seattle, WA

10:00 AM

University of Washington

Ken Shannon Last Chance Meet

February 24, 2024 | Track & Field

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By: UW Athletic Communications

Complete Results PDF | Complete Results on TFRRS

SEATTLE – Another Dempsey Indoor season has drawn to a close, with a myriad of momentum-building PRs for the Huskies on the final day of the Ken Shannon Last Chance Meet. Washington will now wait for NCAA Indoor Championship selections to be announced this coming week and head to Boston in two weeks to compete against the nation's best.

800-meter specialist Wilma Nielsen was the Dawg today who did the most to lock up an individual NCAA spot, as she raced to a PR of 2:02.26 which will keep her locked in the top-16, which is the NCAA Indoor cut-off.

The rest of the squad will turn its attention to the outdoor season, which will begin at the end of March with the Stanford Invitational.

Sprints

The 400-meters saw season-and personal-bests galore from the Huskies today. Anna Terrell went 55.35 and freshman Kapiolani Coleman had a PR of 56.37 to lead the women. The men got the first sub-47-second run of Daniel Gaik's career as he ran 46.98 to improve his No. 7 mark in school history. Jonathan Birchman had a season-best 47.77, just .01 off his PR. Freshmen Jonathan Frazier and Boden Hanley each wrapped their indoor seasons with PRs, Frazier going 47.95 and Hanley 48.08.

Distances

The women's 800-meters was one of the big highlights of the meet with a fantastic field led by the fastest time ever run by an American indoors, as Nia Akins of the Brooks Beasts ran 1:58.27, the first woman to ever break two-minutes in the Dempsey.

First-year Husky Wilma Nielsen earned herself an indoor PR in the same heat as Akins' record time, running 2:02.26 to improve her No. 2 time in school history and essentially lock up an NCAA Indoor bid as that should rank her 12th nationally. Marlena Preigh lowered her season-best to 2:03.34 one week after helping the DMR set the collegiate record. And competing unattached, Samantha Friborg had a season-best time of 2:04.44, setting herself up well for the coming outdoor season.

The Dempsey saw its 300th sub-four-minute mile this weekend and now 200 different men have broken the mark. A new one joining the list for UW was Evan Jenkins, as the redshirt freshman became the sixth Husky man just this year to go sub-four, and the 21st in school history. Jenkins ran 3:59.54, while Leo Daschbach also went sub-four for the second time this season, going 3:59.04. Eric Gibson also had a season-best time of 4:01.03

In the women's mile, Sophie O'Sullivan clocked 4:38.98 and Julia David-Smith doubled back from her big 3k PR last night and ran 4:42.60.

Jumps

Kunle Akinlosotu picked up a victory in the men's triple jump to kick off the morning. The transfer from Oklahoma flew to a career-best 50-feet, 10-inches to move up to a tie for No. 3 in school history. Freshmen Trevontay Smith and Roman Hutchinson finished fifth and seventh, respectively, with Smith going 47-8 and Hutchinson 47-1 ¾.

In the women's triple jump, Lauren Heggen was sixth overall at 39-11 ¼ and Ava Washburn made the final as well, placing 9th at 37-11 ½.

Throws

School Record-holder Kaia Tupu-South was the lone Husky in the shot put today, trying to move up the NCAA list as she came in tied for 16th nationally. Tupu-South was unable to improve today, as she had a best of 55-3 ¾. The sophomore will have to wait and see if her season-best 56-4 will make the cut.

Multis

Jami Schlueter wrapped up a career-best heptathlon score today with three more events, starting with the 60-meter hurdles, where he had the third-fastest time of 8.18 seconds. In the pole vault, Schlueter cleared 14-7 ¼. In the final 1,000-meters, Schlueter gritted his way to a time of 2:43.48, which in the end added up to a final score of 5,668 points. That was a 50-point PR and improves his No. 3 mark in school history, and moves him into the top-25 nationally.