Erin Hegarty, Chandler Olson & Maddie Meyers
Maddie Meyers of Northwest High School in Seattle placed 4th against a field of collegians on Saturday. The Last Chance Meet held at the Dempsey Center on the University of Washington campus offered collegians a final chance to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships but no women achieved the mark of 4:37 needed to earn a qualifier. Meyers on the other hand ran a solid 4:47.27 to score her best time of the young year topping her 4:54 at last week’s Brooks PR Invitational, which was also held in the Dempsey. That time, incidentally, would have won the Brooks meet last week. Oregon State runners Casey Masterson & Hayley Oveson, who are both coming back after injuries, were clocked with versions of 4:48, as they placed 8th & 9th respectively.
Chandler Olson of Woodinville High School placed tenth in the 3K in a field dominated by collegians. Her time of 10:02.63 topped her best of the year of 10:10, which she ran in early February. Katie Flood & Megan Goethals of UW went 1 – 2 with their times of 9:09.25 & 9:11.56 to gain their automatic qualifiers of 9:13, while Tara Erdman of Loyola Marymount & Stephanie Marcy of Stanford also secured NCAA berths. Jessica Tonn of Stanford (9:16) & Laura Carlyle (9:35) of OSU placed 5th & 8th in the race respectively. Laura Carlyle of Oregon State broke the school record by running 9:35.99: a record that went back to 1985 & was owned by Kathy Knowlton. Knowlton for the record took part in the first Foot Locker WestRegional in 1979 & earned a prestigious berth at nationals the following year.
Darian Brooks of Kennedy High School qualified for the finals of the 60 meter Dash with his time of 7.00 & then placed sixth in the finals with his time of 7.01. His time against collegiate runners was just off of the time of 6.91 that he ran the previous week at Brooks.
Jeff Bastian of Glacier Peak HS placed 17th in the Men’s mile with his 4:22.96 clocking. The big news in that race were the times of A J Acosta (of Oregon but running unattached) & James Cameron of UW, who both went under the 3:59 needed to make it to the NCAA Championships. Just missing was Mac Fleet of Oregon, who ran 3:59.03. (As it turned out Mac made it & was installed as the 16th miler, when the Indoor heat sheet was announced.