Colby Gilbert becomes second straight Husky runner to earn Pac-12 Track Athlete of the Week...
SAN FRANCISCO—For the second week in a row, a University of Washington men’s track runner has been selected by the Pacific-12 Conference as its athlete of the week.
Sophomore Colby Gilbert (left/photo by Paul Merca) of the Huskies was selected by the conference for his run of 13:44.96 at last Saturday’s Pepsi Team Invitational at Historic Hayward Field in Eugene, which was the second fastest in UW school history.
His feat was significant in that he became one of a select group of collegians to ever defeat Oregon’s Edward Cheserek, a 13-time NCAA champion, when he put on a burst with 250 meters to go, and Cheserek did not respond to the final sprint.
Gilbert’s mark is the #4 time in NCAA Division I this season.
The Skyview/Vancouver prep product joins Arizona’s Pau Tonnesen (men’s field) and Sage Watson (women’s track), along with Stanford’s Valarie Allman (women’s field) as the conference’s athletes of the week for the week ending April 10th.
The Washington men’s team is ranked #23 in the latest USTFCCCA Division I computer rankings released by the organization on Monday.
The top five teams in the country according to the computer rankings are Texas A&M, Florida, Oregon, Texas & LSU.
Other Pac-12 teams in the national top-25 are #14 USC, #16 Stanford, and #17 Colorado.
In Division II, both Western Washington and Seattle Pacific are in the national top 25 in this week’s computer rankings.
The Vikings are ranked #14, while the Falcons are #15 this week.
Saint Augustine’s is the #1 women’s team in Division II, followed by Johnson C. Smith, West Texas A&M, Chico State, and Texas A&M-Kingsville.
Alaska Anchorage is the only other team besides Western Washington and Seattle Pacific ranked in the top 25, at #13.
Finally, here's a report from Flotrack indicating that Washington State hall of famer Bernard Lagat will make his 10k track debut at the Payton Jordan Invitational on May 1st at Stanford University.
Lagat hinted at taking a shot at the 10000 a few weeks ago after he broke his masters world record for 5k on the road at the Carlsbad 5000 on April 3rd, when he ran 13:38, breaking it by two seconds.
NOTE: The Pac-12, the University of Washington, the USTFCCCA, and Flotrack contributed to this report.
NOTE: The Pac-12, the University of Washington, the USTFCCCA, and Flotrack contributed to this report.
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