Jordan Boase breaks UW indoor 400m school record at Husky Classic...

Washington's Jordan Boase (left) puts his stamp on the Husky Classic as he runs down Washington State's Justin Woods to lead the Huskies to the victory in the 4 x 400 meter relay (photo by Paul Merca)

Washington’s Jordan Boase ran the fastest 400-meter dash time in the world thus far in 2009, highlighting a remarkable Husky Classic track meet Saturday at the Dempsey Indoor facility.

Four school records were broken and four more Dempsey facility records were shattered on Saturday, with Boase's 46.15-second sprint counting for one of each.

Entering the weekend, David Gillick of Ireland held the world’s fastest time indoors this season with a 46.18 clocking in Dusseldorf on Friday the 13th.

Boase, a native of Bothell, Wash., had not contested the 400-meters since the semifinals of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials last June. He began his season last weekend with the second-fastest 200-meter dash in school history in Boise, then topped that with the fastest indoor time run by anyone in 2009.

Boase's previous best indoors was 46.34 seconds, run at last season's NCAA Indoor Championships in which he placed third.

After the race Boase was not shy about his goals heading into the meet.

"I wanted to run a world leading time," Boase said. "I was hoping to hit 45-seconds, but I'm happy with it. I didn't come off the corner with the lead but I just sat in behind (Washington State's Jeshua Anderson) and then knew I could make a move on the straightaway. With 300-meters I knew I was going to win. The goal now is to go score points in two weeks at Mountain Pacific and then get ready for NCAA's."

Anderson, the reigning NCAA, USA junior, and world junior champion at the 400 hurdles, hung on for second in a time of 46.75 seconds.

Here's the video of Boase's race, courtesy of media partner runnerspace.com.



Later that night, Boase finished the track meet by homing in on Washington State's Justin Woods to give Washington the victory in the 4x400-meter relay. Woods had a 20-meter lead on Boase on the backstretch, as the Cougars put Anderson on the third leg, but on the final straightaway Boase blew past the cross-state rival as the UW's foursome of Sam Rucker, Jeff Gudaitis, Joe Turner, and Boase won in 3:11.11.

Washington’s Christine Babcock, the Pac-10 Cross Country Newcomer of the Year, and the national high school 1600m record holder displayed her incredible talents in the first mile run of her college career, running 4:38.00 to hit the NCAA Automatic qualifier right on the dot, in finishing fifth in the fast section of the mile, just behind Seattle Pacific's Jessica Pixler, who was fourth in 4:37.83.

Three more UW school records on the women's side fell, as junior Katie Follett lowered her own 3,000-meter indoor record by nine seconds, running 9:16.01 to make the NCAA Provisional mark and fall just shy of the 9:15.00 AQ. Redshirt freshman Mel Lawrence was just behind Follett, running 9:16.89 to put her name second in the record book in her first collegiate 3K.

At 5,000-meters, senior Anita Campbell crushed Sabrina Monro's six-year-old school record, finishing in 16:09.26, nearly thirteen seconds faster than the old record of 16:22.13.

Sophomore Elisa Bryant also rewrote her own school record in the weight throw, with a top effort of 64-feet, 8-inches that ranks in the Top-10 nationally based on marks heading into the weekend.

For Washington State, freshman Shawn Swartz became the 30th man in WSU history to clear 7-feet in the high jump when he cleared the bar at 7-0 1/2 (2.15m) Saturday. Swartz, who joins teammates Trent Arrivey and Ryan Deese with NCAA PQ 7-foot-plus high jump marks this season, did not miss a bar until he reached 2.15m when he cleared on his third and final attempt to finish in a tie for fourth. Swartz had cleared his previous PR height of 7-0 1/4 (2.14m) at the 2008 Husky Classic.

Other highlights of the Husky Classic included Beijing Olympian Andrew Wheating, winning his first 800 race of 2009 in a facility and University of Oregon indoor record 1:47.03. He was nearly a second faster than Tevan Everett of Texas, who finished in 1:47.82.

Oregon’s Matthew Centrowitz broke the 4:00 barrier in the mile for the first time in his career to win Saturday’s race in a school-record 3:57.92. He finished just ahead of David Torrence of Golden Bear Track Club, who ran 3:58.15. Those marks are the third and fourth fastest times in Dempsey history.

In a bit of trivia, Centrowitz joins his father Matt as what is believed to be the third father/son combination to break four minutes in the mile joining Kip & Martin Keino, and Barry & Darren Brown.

Probably one of the most impressive runs of the day was the solo effort by Colorado’s Jenny Barringer, as the University of Colorado Olympian broke her second Dempsey Indoor record in two weeks, in obliterating the field in the 5000, clocking 15:01.70, the third fastest time in the world this season.

Complete results from the Husky Classic can be accessed here.

NOTE: The University of Washington sports information office assisted with this report.