Huskies' Sam Tanner now the absolute collegiate in-season record holder at 1500 meters...

STATEN ISLAND, New York--All the way across the country, University of Washington redshirt freshman Sam Tanner (photo by John Nepolitan) dropped a bombshell that will certainly be felt throughout the collegiate ranks with the NCAA indoor championships upcoming in four weeks.

Tanner, who returned to the United States last week after taking online classes in his native New Zealand all fall and part of winter quarter due to the pandemic, let everyone know not to forget about him, as he ran 3:34.72 Saturday to finish third in the men's 1500 meters at the nationally televised New Balance Indoor Grand Prix at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex.

Competing as the lone collegian in a professional field, Tanner started towards the back of the pack in the 7.5 lap race and worked his way up, finding himself in third with 300 meters to go.

Tanner finished the race in a New Zealand national record 3:34.72 as Wisconsin alum Oliver Hoare won the race in an Australian national record 3:32.35, with Jake Wightman of Great Britain second in 3:34.48.

University of Washington volunteer coach Sam Prakel finished fourth in a personal best time of 3:36.36.

Tanner, who is considered one of the sport's rising stars in the middle distances, also set a new University of Washington school record, breaking the old school record set outdoors of 3:37.74 by Izaic Yorks in 2016; the collegiate indoor record, set last night by Cooper Teare of Oregon of 3:35.46, en route to running 3:50.39 in the mile; and the all time collegiate in season absolute best mark of 3:35.01 set by Josh Kerr of New Mexico in 2018, run outdoors.

Oh, and by the way, Tanner has the Olympic qualifying standard. 

That's a lot of words just to say that Sam Tanner is the best collegiate in season 1500 meter runner ever!

Tanner's mark, in combination with the 3:50.39 and 3:50.55 mile times run by Oregon's Cooper Teare and Cole Hocker in the Tyson Invitational mile race, sets up potentially a titanic clash between the Duck duo and the Husky at the NCAA championships.

In their mile race yesterday, Teare went through 1500 at 3:35.46, and Hocker crossed the 1500 mark in 3:35.63. Both broke the existing collegiate 1500 indoor record of 3:36.93 set by former Duck teammate James West last year.

Tanner will have to get a qualifying mark in the mile that's inside the top 16 to make sure he's on the line at the NCAA championships in Fayetteville.

There were other athletes with Washington ties competing at the New Balance meet Saturday.

Federal Way HS product Hannah Cunliffe continued her comeback from an injury-plagued last two seasons with a season best in the 60 meter dash, as she ran 7.17 in both the semis and in the finals.

Cunliffe finished second in both the semis and the finals, getting edged in the finals by Kayla White, who ran  a personal best 7.15.

Washington alum Olivia Gruver finished second in the women's pole vault, clearing 14-7.25 (4.45m), as defending world indoor champ Sandi Morris took the win at 15-1 (4.60m). West Seattle HS standout Chloe Cunliffe was third at 13-7.25 (4.15m).

Another UW alum, Amy-Eloise (Neale) Markovc, who competed in high school at Glacier Peak HS in Snohomish, finished seventh in the women's two mile in a British national record time of 9:30.69.

Elle Purrier set an American indoor record of 9:10.28 to get the win.

Camas native Alexa Efraimson finished seventh in the women's 1500, running 4:11.26, as Heather Maclean won in 4:06.32.

Complete results of the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix are available here.

SIX MEN DUCK UNDER 4 MINUTES IN UW INVITATIONAL MILE...

While Tanner competed in Staten Island, the rest of his Husky teammates were back home in snowy Seattle at the second day of the UW Invitational at the Dempsey Indoor.

The highlight of Saturday's competition came in the men's mile, as Villanova alum and 2016 Australian Olympian Patrick Tiernan of the Nike Oregon TC won in a personal best of 3:56.82 to lead five other runners under 4 minutes.

Paul Ryan, who only has outdoor eligibility remaining at Washington State, was second in 3:57.21, while current Coug Colton Johnsen was third, breaking 4 minutes for the first time in 3:57.39.

Nike OTC's Vince Ciattei (3:57.63) and Will Paulson (3:58.03) were fourth and fifth, respectively.

Zach Stallings of the Cougars was the final man under 4 minutes, running 3:58.13, after falling just short last week at Arkansas.

2019 USA World Championships team member Hanna Green of Nike OTC used a late surge to win the women's mile, running 4:29.08 over UW volunteer coach Alli Cash, who was second in 4:30.67. 2016 Portuguese Olympian Marta Pen Freitas of the Seattle-based Brooks Beasts, who did some of the early front-running, finished third in 4:32.08, just in front of Anna Camp (4:33.00), the winner of Friday night's 3000.

Lake Washington HS alum Dillon Maggard won the men's 3000 in 7:53.02, outlasting Club Northwest's Tom Anderson, who ran 7:54.33.

The Huskies' Evan Mafilas got two wins on the day, taking the 400 in 47.59, and the 200 in 21.78.

The Cougars' Sam Brixey (7.80) outlasted teammate Nick Johnson (7.94) to win the men's 60 hurdles.

Complete results of the UW Invitational are available here.

NOTE: The sports information office of the University of Washington and Global Athletics contributed to this report.

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