ICYMI: Washington prep stars Chinne Okoronkwo and Iman Brown transfer to new schools...

While it’s a little bit quiet in the transition from cross country to indoor track (keeping in mind that there’s still two big cross country races upcoming in the next two weeks: the NCAA Division II championships in Pittsburgh this Saturday, and the USATF National Club Cross Country Championships in Spokane Valley next Saturday), let’s catch up on some things we’ve overlooked over the fall:

Mountlake Terrace HS grad Chinne Okoronkwo (above/photo courtesy University of Wisconsin) and Garfield HS grad Iman Brown transferred from the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Washington, and are now competing for Texas Tech, and the University of Oregon.

At Wisconsin, Okoronkwo placed third indoors and sixth in the 2017 Big Ten triple jump, then followed it up with a fifth place finish in the 2018 Big Ten indoor championships.

She came close to her all-time personal best of 42-11.75 (13.10m), set indoors as a high school senior in 2016, at the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento, jumping 42-9 (13.03m), but finished 13th, one spot out of qualifying for the NCAA championships in Eugene.

Okoronkwo was a multi-time state champion in the long and triple jumps at Mountlake Terrace, as well as in the pole vault, and was on the USA national team that competed in the IAAF World U20 Championships in 2016, and the 2015 Pan Am junior championships.

Okoronkwo leaves Wisconsin as the #2 performer indoors and #3 all-time outdoors in the triple jump.

Brown (left/photo by Paul Merca), who graduated from Garfield in 2017 after winning three individual state titles in the 200, high jump, and long jump, started her career with a bang at the University of Washington, breaking the school record in the 200 at the Don Kirby Invitational in Albuquerque, running 23.51.

She finished seventh in the 200 at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship meet, running 23.81.

Outdoors, she was part of the Husky 4 x 400 relay team that finished fourth at the Pac-12 championships, and finished third in the 200 at the Mt. SAC Relays, and fifth in the 200 at the Texas Relays.

She was recruited to Washington by former sprint coach Eric Metcalf, who also had Brown on his Seatown Express club team.

Here are links to the TFRRS profiles of Okoronkwo and Brown.