Piliusina and Burkstrand win at Stumptown Twilight...

PORTLAND—In what was essentially a last-chance opportunity to earn qualifying marks for next week’s USATF Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, several athletes took to the Griswold Stadium track on the campus of Lewis & Clark College aiming for the standards at the Stumptown Twilight meet.

In the women’s 800, former NCAA 1500m champ Natalija Piliusina of the Brooks Beasts took the win in 2:02.77, with teammate and Washington alum Baylee Mires (left/photo by Howard Lao) taking fourth in 2:04.14.

Beasts teammate Claudia Saunders was tenth in 2:07.47, and Seattle Pacific alum McKayla Fricker was eleventh in 2:09.13.

Piliusina, a Lithuanian citizen, was looking to go under the world championship standard of 2:01.00.  Mires, Saunders and Fricker are listed as accepted into the national championships apparently using 2016 marks.

Minnesota alum Travis Burkstrand of the Brooks Beasts took no chances and set a new personal best of 3:38.96, 4/100ths under the automatic qualifying standard of 3:39.00, just ahead of Auburn/Riverside HS alum Jordan McNamara’s 3:39.23.  Barring scratches and/or an appeal, McNamara currently finds himself not in the meet, as there are at least 30 athletes under the standard.

WSU's Paul Ryan was third in the B section of the men's 1500 in 3:46.07.

Washington State alum Collier Lawrence fell just short of the USATF qualifying standard of 9:50.00 in the 3000 steeplechase, as she ran 9:51.13 to take fourth, but according to the entry status list posted on the USA Track & Field site late Friday night, her mark was accepted.

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