Watch 50+ races from this weekends meet, enter this tag: uw-invite-08

Huskies Track & Field                                          Final Results

 

SEATTLE - Hundreds of track and field athletes put in a long day of work today at the Dempsey Indoor facility, but were rewarded for their efforts as the UW Invitational produced 57 NCAA qualifying marks, several facility and school records, and marks that rank among the best in the world this year.

At the top of the list of accomplishments for the Washington squads was senior Amanda Miller, who broke her own indoor school record in the 800-meters, running 2:06.69 and easily surpassing the NCAA provisional time. Miller, a two-time All-American looks to be in fine form in her first weekend of competition since the fall cross country season, as she also helped UW's DMR earn a provisional qualifying time Friday night, handing off with the lead after running the first leg.

One of the day's most pleasant surprises came from junior Andrea Brown (Bellingham, Wash.) in the women's mile. Brown shed eight seconds from her previous personal best, placing second just behind Baylor's Danielle Bradley in 4:45.94. The time earned Brown NCAA provisional consideration and places her seventh on UW's indoor Top-10.

"Amanda and Andrea were definitely huge stars for us today. They've both been working their tails off and Andrea especially proved that she can be a factor for us this year," said Husky Head Coach Greg Metcalf. "It's still just the beginning of Frebruary and there's a long way to go, but this was our strongest team effort to date this season. The Dempsey was an exciting place to be today, as usual."

On the men's side, senior James Fredrickson crossed the finish line with a whoop in a personal-best 400m time of 47.40. Fredrickson, who usually specializes in hurdles, climbed to fifth on the Huskies' Top-10 with the run, which was just 0.16 seconds off the "B" cut. Two-time All-American Jordan Boase took second in the 200-meters with a time of 21.29, and junior transfer Joseph Turner was fourth in 21.59, another new UW Top-10 mark.

Steve Sherer, running for Athletic Performance, turned heads in the men's mile, running a blistering final lap to amaze the crowd with a time of 3:56.00, a new Dempsey Indoor record and the fastest time in the world this year by more than a second. BYU's Kyle Perry and Arizona State's Kyle Alcorn finished second and third, also breaking the four-minute mile, but were still over three seconds behind Sherer, who broke the previous record of 3:56.72 set by Nick Symmonds in January 2007.

An expected long jump showdown between UW's five-time All-American Norris Frederick and Cal State Northridge's DaShalle Andrews didn't quite materialize, as Andrews' teammate Reindell Cole stole the spotlight with a jump of 26' 1 ¾", fifth-best in the world this year and tops in the college ranks. Frederick still got the better of Andrews, the person who upset Frederick for the 2007 NCAA Outdoor title, by placing second with a jump of 25' 8 ¼". Later in the afternoon, Frederick captured the high jump title with a clearance of 7' 2 ¼" that ties his career high.

Other Dempsey records included former Husky NCAA 800m Champion Ryan Brown, who tore through the 1000m run in 2:23.91, four seconds faster than the old record in the seldom-run race. Oregon's Ashton Eaton finished off a record heptathlon performance, scoring 5,859 points, an automatic NCAA entry mark.

The indoor action steps up once again in two weeks as the Huskies host the Husky Classic on Saturday, Feb. 16.