WEEKEND RECAP: Nelson, Fulton & Polley place in top 40 at USATF Club XC champs...
In the final open championship meet of the 2016 season, Washington alum Aaron Nelson (left/photo by Paul Merca), finished 27th at the USATF National Club Cross Country championships Saturday at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida.
Nelson ran 30:11 for the 10 kilometer distance, as former NCAA cross country champion Sam Chelanga took the win in 28:55.
Nelson has relocated to North Carolina to pursue his professional running career as a member of the ZAP Fitness Reebok squad.
Nelson’s team finished fourth with 134 points, as the American Distance Project team out of Colorado won with 31 points, led by Chelanga’s victory.
Club Northwest finished 15th with 390 points led by Nathaniel Richards’ 73rd place finish in 31:02.
In the open women’s 6k, Washington alum Eleanor Fulton finished 33rd in 20:50, while Club Northwest’s Emma Polley was 36th in 20:54.
Fulton’s High Performance West team out of Portland was second with 87 points, finishing behind the Boston Athletic Association’s 33 points. Club Northwest was seventh with 223 points.
US Olympian Colleen Quigley of the Portland-based Bowerman TC won in a time of 19:31.
SAINT MARTIN'S MIKEL SMITH WINS HIGH JUMP AT JACKSON'S OPEN IN NAMPA...
In Nampa, Idaho, a small contingent of athletes from Saint Martin’s and Central Washington competed at Saturday’s Jackson’s Open meet hosted by Boise State University.
Among the highlights:
—In the men’s high jump, Saint Martin’s Mikel Smith, the reigning NCAA Division II outdoor high jump champ, cleared 7-0.25 (2.14m) to win that event. Smith’s winning jump is just outside the NCAA D2 automatic standard of 7-1.5 (2.17m), and ranks him second in the country in this young season;
—Central Washington’s Luke Plummer won both the long and triple jumps, with marks of 23-2 (7.06m), and 48-10.25 (14.89m). Plummer’s triple jump ranks him fourth in the nation in Division II so far this indoor season.
—Central’s Kyler Ooley won the men’s 60 dash in a time of 6.94, while teammate McKenna Emmert won the women’s pole vault, clearing 12-1.5 (3.70m).
HEATH TO DEFEND GREAT EDINBURGH X-COUNTRY TITLE
According to a post in Athletics Weekly, Garrett Heath of the Seattle-based Brooks Beasts will open his 2017 season by defending his title at the Great Edinburgh International X-Country race in the Scottish city.
Heath won the 8k title last year, defeating double Olympic 10000/5000m champ Mo Farah in a dramatic finish at fabled Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. He also won the 4k race in 2014, and repeated as champion in 2015, before moving up to the 8k distance last year.
Comments