Track and field athletes begin season at UW Preview

SEATTLE — The University of Washington Huskies hosted the Washington State University Cougars and Central Washington University Wildcats in the UW Preview. This event marked the first track and field event of the year for these teams.

CWU

The Wildcats had a strong performance for their first meet of the new year, placing top 10 in around 20 events.

“We had bright spots across the board as we got back into action,” said Wildcats head coach Jonathan Hill. “Starting out Friday, our distance men rewrote the record books in the 3k with a bunch of new names.”

Two returning athletes earned first place for CWU, with David Brown in the 60-meter hurdles with a final time of 8.08 seconds and Emy Ntekpere in the triple jump with 12.54 meters. Ntekpere also took second in the high jump at 1.79 meters.

For the men, Colton Magruder placed fourth with 6.88 and Josh Boast placed fifth with 8.93 in the 60-meter hurdles. Cal’von Baker took fourth in the high jump at 1.95 meters with a ninth-place finish in the triple jump at 14.03 meters.

In the 4x400-meter relay, Central’s team of Brown, Volle, Calhoon and Boast took fifth with a time of 3:23.20.

For the women, Maliyah Gordon placed third in the weight throw with a mark of 16.65 meters and Ashley Nielsen finished fourth in the 200-meter dash with 24.67 seconds. Adalynn Claybrook and Cariann Bryant competed in the pole vault, with Claybrook finishing third, clearing 3.45 meters and Bryant finishing fifth at 3.30 meters.

The Wildcats 4x400-meter relay team of Donna Marie Harris, Julie Castillejo, Carley Huber and Ellie DeGroot placed fourth with a time of 3:45.53.

The Wildcats will compete in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational Jan. 23-24 in Albuquerque, N.M., before traveling back to Seattle to compete in the UW Invitational and Mile City events Jan. 30-31.

UW

Jimmy Rhoads from the Huskies joined the 19-foot vault club in his first year as a Husky after earning All-American honors at Penn. Rhoads went 19-1 at the UW Preview, which not only broke a 22-year old record set by Huskies Associate Head Coach Toby Stevenson back in 2004, but also broke the Big Ten Conference record ranking Rhoads at No. 11 in NCAA history indoors.

The Huskies had other record-breaking performances during the meet as Chloe Foerster ran the third-fastest women’s 1k in NCAA history at 2:37.79 and Jenica Swartz completed the 1k in fifth with a time of 2:39.88, as the two women both crushed UW’s old school record of 2:46.82 set by multiple All-American Amy-Eloise Neale in 2017. In the 600-meter, Chloe Symon took third in school history with a time of 1:29.73 and took second overall at the UW Preview.

Tyler Bilyard posted the fourth-fastest men’s 1k in NCAA history at 2:17.96 to take first Saturday and Owen Powell jumped to sixth in UW history with a time of 2:21.52, taking fifth at the meet.

Other top placements for the UW men include that of Evan Jenkins, who claimed a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the top heat of the men’s 3k with a time of 7:51.42 to outpace WSU’s Evans Kurui by .02 seconds. Eli Gault-Crabb took second in the pole vault, Jonathan Frazier took third in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.33 seconds and Trevontay Smith took second, Roman Hutchinson took third and Tim Luebbert took fifth in the triple jump.

On the women’s side, Huskies’ Vernonica Vacca claimed her first collegiate win in the pole vault as she cleared 14-0 ½ and Ava Washburn took fourth in the triple jump. In the 4x400 meter relay, Sena Pittman, Syman, Swarts and Foerster took first with a time of 3:46.55.

The Huskies will host the UW Invitational Jan. 30 with the first events beginning at 11 a.m. and attend the Mile City event Jan. 31 at 10 a.m.

WSU

The Cougars competed at the UW Preview with some success sprinkled throughout the weekend.

WSU’s men had a strong performance in the one-mile B Sections as Eric Swedin took first with a time of 4:17.32 and Ricard Verges took fifth with a time of 4:25.24. Evans Kurui took second in the 3k with 7:51.44, coming just short of victory after the Huskies’ Evan Jenkins took first.

For the Cougars women, Taylor Sletner took third in the 3k B Sections with a final time of 9:48.73 and Rosemary Longisa took third in the 1k with a time of 2:83.26.

The Cougars’ next meet will be at the McCluskey Memorial open Jan. 23-24.

    Jimmy Rhoads from the Huskies completes a 19-foot pole vault at the UW Preview over the weekend to break a 22-year-old record. This feat ranks Rhoads at No. 11 in the NCAA history indoors for pole vaulting.