Mick Stanovsek anchors Husky DMR squad to victory at UW Last Chance College Elite meet...
The stage was set for a fast race, when the Seattle based Brooks Beasts, with two members of its world-best setting 4 x mile relay team, along with 2018 world indoor 800m silver medalist Drew Windle on the foursome, entered the race.
For most of the race, it was a battle between the Beasts and the Ducks, with Oregon leading at the first two exchanges with James West on the 1200, and Jacob Miller on the 400, and Henry Wynne and Brannon Kidder on the opening legs for the Beasts.
Meanwhile, the Huskies stayed within striking distance with Connor Morello and Cass Elliott running the first two legs, and Devan Kirk on the 800 leg.
On the 800 leg, Kirk showed no fear towards the world 800m indoor silver medalist, as he challenged Windle for most of the leg before he and Oregon’s Reed Brown pulled away over the last 150 meters.
The Beasts had a slight lead over Oregon entering the final leg. However, the Beasts had Kirkland native Dillon Maggard on the anchor replacing Washington alum Izaic Yorks, who was dealing with a minor injury.
Maggard, who was an NCAA scorer last year in the 10000m for Utah State, proved to be no match for Oregon’s anchor, Cooper Teare, and his former teammate Stanovsek, running the anchor for the Huskies.
For most of the anchor leg, Stanovsek stayed within striking distance of Teare, but on the final lap, he made his move with 200 meters to go, and opened a gap on Teare.
As they came off the final turn, Teare made a last ditch effort to catch Stanovsek, and actually made up some ground, but Stanovsek had enough distance to give Washington the win in a time of 9:28.14, to Oregon’s 9:28.62.
Maggard brought the Beasts home in third in 9:33.34, while UCLA was fourth in 9:34.64, and Columbia fifth in 9:34.72.
The Huskies’ winning time was the third fastest in school history, and currently moves Washington up to fifth on the NCAA descending order list, behind Ole Miss, Indiana, Texas, Iowa State, and Georgetown, according to Flotrack.
Updated Men's Top-12 DMR Times in 2019... #NCAATF watch Oregon, UCLA, Washington and Columbia look to crack the top-12 LIVE on FloTrack in a few hrs! pic.twitter.com/tXDs9jhXq0— FloTrack (@FloTrack) February 16, 2019
Oregon, which started the day in ninth, moves up to sixth, with UCLA unofficially in ninth and Columbia tenth, pending the outcome of several major meets around the country this weekend, as teams jockey for one of the twelve spots in the NCAA championships in three weeks.
Other highlights:
—China’s Xu Shuangshuang, who was sixth in their national championships last year in the 5000 meters, came off the pace in the final 100 meters, to overtake Washington alum Eleanor Fulton and win the women’s mile in 4:33.53 to 4:33.91.
Former Seattle resident Natalija Piliusina, who now lives in Arizona, hung on to finish third in 4:34.69, with the Huskies’ Katie Rainsberger fourth in 4:35.15.
—Virginia Tech alum Hanna Green of the Nike Oregon Track Club, won a very competitive women’s 800 in 2:02.80, over 2016 Chinese Olympian Wang Chunyu, who ran 2:03.59. Seattle resident and 2016 French Olympian Justine Fedronic was third in 2:04.04, while Washington alum Baylee Mires was fourth in 2:04.16.
—In the men’s pole vault, Chase Smith set a new personal best of 18-1.25 (5.52m) to win the event. Smith, the MPSF champ last year for the Huskies, is being redshirted this indoor season.
—The women’s pole vault saw two time NCAA outdoor champ Olivia Gruver take the victory with a clearance of 14-2.5 (4.33m).
—In the men’s long jump, British national champion Tim Duckworth’s first round mark of 25-2.75 (7.69m) was good enough to take the victory, as the world’s #10 ranked decathlete last year prepares for October’s IAAF world track and field championships in Doha, Qatar.
—Paul Ryan of Washington State won a very competitive section of the men’s mile, running 4:02.43 to beat Cal’s Garrett Corcoran (4:04.15), and Washington’s Nate Beamer (4:04.44).
Seattle University’s Jacques Hebert finished seventh in the heat in a new school record of 4:09.62, while two spots behind him was his teammate Nathan Pixler, who also went under the previous SeattleU school record of 4:12.41 that Hebert set last week at the Husky Classic.
The UW Last Chance College Elite meet officially concludes Saturday with the men’s invitational mile at 3:20 pm, as the invitational mile will be inserted into the UW High School Indoor Invitational meet.
Results of the UW Last Chance College Elite meet are available here.
NOTE: The University of Washington, and Seattle University sports information offices contributed to this report.
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