UW's Rainsberger and Mountlake Terrace native Okoronkwo earn podium finishes at NCAA indoors...
Rainsberger's first of two outings came in the mile final, where she tucked into the rail in the middle of the pack and held that position nearly the full way, going with the leader when the pace picked up with two to go.
In the end, she ran 4:39.05 to take seventh, as Julia Rizk of Ohio State won in 4:37.63.
She later ran the 3000 in a field that either not raced yet this weekend, or had run the 5k or DMR on Friday. Rainsberger stayed connected with the pack throughout until it broke up with about 800 meters to go. She would ultimately finish in 12th-place in a time of 9:17.37, as Jessica Hull of Oregon won the 3000 in 9:01.14.
Mountlake Terrace native Chinne Okoronkwo, who competes for Texas Tech University, became the first woman to score in both the triple jump and pole vault in NCAA indoor championship history, as she picked up a pair of eighth place finishes, earning All-America honors.
In the triple jump, Okoronkwo went 42'-11.75" (13.10m) to place eighth. She also placed eighth in the pole vault after topping out at 13'-11.75" (4.26m). Yanis David of Florida won the triple jump with a best of 46-0.75 (14.03m), while Alexis Jacobus of Arkansas won the pole vault at 15-1.5 (4.61m).
In his first appearance at the NCAA indoor championships, Washington fifth year senior Fred Huxham finished tenth in 7:58.95, as Wisconsin’s Morgan McDonald completed the 3000/5000 double by winning in 7:52.85.
Arkansas won the women’s team title with a score of 62 points, while Florida won the men’s team title with 55 points.
The Husky women’s team scored 4 points (2 from Rainsberger in the mile, and 2 in the distance medley relay) to finish in a tie for 48th place.
Complete results of the NCAA Division I championships are available here.
NCAA DIVISION II RECAP
In Pittsburg, Kansas, Central Washington’s Braydon Maier, HarLee Ortega and Zach Whitttaker earned top-8 finishes to highlight competition at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships at the at the Robert W. Plaster Center.
Maier, who started day 2 of the heptathlon tied for 11th with teammate Kodiak Landis, put together a strong performance to finish seventh overall with a final score of 5288 points.
Maier scurried to a fifth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.44. He followed by pole vaulting 4.80m. The mark was the second best of any heptathlon competitors. Maier finished his event with a strong 1,000-meter race time of 2:41.39. He ended the day with 5,288 total points, as Valentin Charles of TAMU-Kingston won with a two-day total of 5642 points.
Landis finished with a final score of 4989 to finish 12th.
Ortega finished seventh in the pentathlon with a final score of 3677 points, as Olivia Montez Brown of Augustana (South Dakota) won with 3915 points.
Her best effort came in the high jump, in which she finished second with a mark of 5-5 (1.65m). Ortega finished sixth in long jump with a mark of 17-11.75 (5.48m).
The Wildcats’ Zach Whittaker arrived at nationals with nothing to lose. He was the last person to qualify for his event, ranking 16th in triple jump before Saturday's competition. Whittaker put together an incredible performance, launching 15.05 meters (49-04.50) to take eighth, as Ryan Brown of Lincoln/Missouri won with a best of 52-6.5 (16.01m).
Central’s Alexa Shindruk finished ninth in the women’s 3000 in 9:36.71, as Alaska Anchorage’s Caroline Kurgat won her second event of the meet in a time of 9:15.45, setting a meet record.
Seattle Pacific’s Scout Cai had a disastrous start in the pentathlon hurdles, hitting hurdles 3 and 4.
She finished in a time of 11.41, and garnered 471 points. After that event, she and SPU head coach Karl Lerum decided to withdraw from the other four events, and concentrate on the pole vault later in the day.
In the vault, she cleared best of 11-10.75 (3.63m) to finish 17th.
Also in the vault, Central’s Halle Irvine cleared 12-6.75/3.83m to get 11th, while Western Washington’s Anna Paradee made the same height to finish 12th. Haven Lander of Pittsburg State won the vault title at 13-2.5 (4.03m).
Western Washington’s Maddie Taylor finished eleventh in the women’s high jump with a best of 5-6 (1.68m), and Yashira Rhymer-Stuart of Bellarmine won at 5-9.75 (1.77m).
Ashland won the men’s team title with 38 points, while Adams State took the women’s title with 87 points.
Complete results of the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships are available here.
PLU OPEN HIGHLIGHTS
Most of the state’s Division II schools made the trip to Tacoma Saturday for the Pacific Lutheran University Open meet.
Paige Shimkus of Western Washington won the women’s javelin with a toss of 152-0 (46.34m) to highlight competition.
Her mark is currently the third best mark nationally in Division II, behind Talena Murray of Angelo State at 156-5/47.67m and Viking teammate Raquel Pellecer’s 155-2/47.31m set at last week’s Ed Boitano Invitational at the University of Puget Sound.
Seattle Pacific freshman Kaylee Mitchell ran the fastest mark so far this year in Division II, in winning the women’s 3000 steeple in 10:51.22.
Results of the PLU Open are available here.
NOTE: The NCAA, and the sports information offices of the University of Washington, Texas Tech University, Central Washington, Pacific Lutheran, and Seattle Pacific contributed to this report.
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