Freshman Hannah Cunliffe of nearby Federal Way narrowly missed the American record for Ninth Grade Girls, when she ran 7.51 in the Preliminary round of the Sixty Meter Dash. The current record of 7.49 was oh so near after winning her heat against a field of collegiate runners. That time incidentally tied Dominique Lauderdale of the University of Washington for the fastest time in the preliminaries. With her running relaxed in the preliminary the national record seemed well within reach but unfortunately the final was a different story. In the final Hannah appeared to have been a bit behind from the gun and she finished 4th with a time of 7.59, while Lauderdale claimed the victory in a 7.48 clocking. Still all in all, although a bit disappointing on Hannah’s part, her time even in the final is excellent for a prep runner & certainly there were a fair number of collegiate runners, who would have gladly accepted Hannah’s time on Saturday. Hannah will have at least two other chances to take the record, as she heads to the Simplot games this weekend & will return to the Dempsey Center on February 27 for the highly anticipated Brooks PR Invitational.
As always the Husky Classic had much to offer for track fans of all levels but Saturday was especially a day for collegians to shine. There were numerous runners, who earned their qualifiers for the NCAA Indoor Championships, yet former local prep star Shane Moskowitz, who ran for Central Kitsap, had more than his share of followers too. Running for Oklahoma State Shane made his return to the northwest a successful one, as the freshman placed second in his heat of the 3k in a fine 8:07 clocking. Shane’s race preceded the main 3K show, which saw Tim Nelson of Nike zip home in 7:49.95 to edge Saucony’s Garrett Heath at the tape. In that event Oregon’s Matt Centrowitz placed third in 7:50.59, as he topped Ryan Hill of North Carolina & Sam Chelanga of Liberty. In all ten collegians secured times that earned berths in the NCAA yet the field also included Alan Webb, who competed for Nike & placed sixth) & Ian Dobson, who ran for the Oregon Track Club & finished 13th.
Olympian Chris Solinsky seems to enjoy his ventures onto the Dempsey Track and Saturday was no exception, as he broke his own field record by racing home in a time of 3:54.52. As excellent as his time was he was still forced to wage a grueling battle with BYU’s Miles Batty, who earned his NCAA qualifier with an impressive 3:55.79. The NCAA qualifier is 3:59 and Dumisani Hlasello of Florida, Matt Gibney of Villanova, A J Acosta of Oregon, & Duncan Phillips of Arkansas all achieved that goal.
The women’s mile saw Oregon Duck Jordan Hasay do the bulk of the work in pulling the field through quality splits only to see Lauren Bonds, running unattached, to nip her at the finish. Still Jordan easily claimed a qualifier for the NCAA by finishing in 4:34.75. Former Tacoma star by way of Bellarmine Prep, returned home to place third in 3:36, while Anne Kesselring of Oregon & Cory McGee of Florida garnered NCAA musts. The women’s 3K saw a dominant performance by Canadian Olympian Malindi Elmore, who burst away from the field early and ran alone virtually the entire race to win in a time of 9:04.70. Of note in that race was UW freshman Megan Goethals, who ran unattached, yet finished third in a time of 9:18.09, which is just off the qualifying mark of 9:13. Placing 7th in the field was Amy Yoder Begley (9:19), while 8th was Jessica Tonn, a freshman from Stanford, who ran 9:20.1.
Elijah Greer of Oregon won one of the more exciting 800 meter races will ever see, when he led a good part of the race only to be caught coming off the turn by Corey Primm of UCLA. Greer battled back only to be caught again but somehow found the strength to annex the final verdict with his time of 1:47.02. Fred Samoei of Alabama was a close third with his 1:47.41. In all five runners topped the necessary 1:48 for NCAA from heat two, while two more young men made the cut in heat one.
There was some action the previous day at UW and the 5000 offered much of note. Elliott Heath of Stanford won the men’s race with a time of 13:37.77, which was almost a full ten seconds under the NCAA qualifier. Leonard Korir of Iona and Stephen Sambu of Arizona ran 13:40.61 & 13:41.57 respectively. Six young men made the NCAA cut and twenty-five runners broke the magic 14 minute barrier including former Gig Harbor prep Miles Unterreiner, who garnered a PR in 13:56. The women’s 5K was also run on Friday and eight collegians secured a trip to the NCAA Indoor meet. The qualifying time of 16:07.50 was hardly a problem for Jackie Arason of Tennessee, who ran 15:39.91 & was victorious. Alex Kosinski of Oregon (15:44.60), Liz Costello of Tennessee (15:48.50) & Natalie Gray of New Mexico (15:54.29) ran impressive times as they placed third through fifth in the race.
