Allie Buchalski of the Brooks Beasts gets Olympic standard at 5000 meters in Orange County...

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, California--Allie Buchalski (photo by Paul Merca) of the Seattle based Brooks Beasts made a significant breakthrough, breaking 15 minutes in the 5000 and gaining the Olympic Games qualifying standard in her season opening race at the Sound Running Invitational at JSerra HS in Orange County Saturday night.

The graduate of Furman stayed off the pace early as Eilish McColgan of Great Britain and former NCAA cross country champion Weini Kilati from New Mexico went to the front, opting to tuck in behind two time world championships team member Emily Sisson.

Sisson pushed the pace over the last mile, as her final time of 14:55.82 was good for the win, with Buchalski taking second in a personal best 14:57.54, well under her previous personal best of 15:22.29, set two years ago in Azusa, California.

Buchalski's final 1600 was 4:39.56, with a final 800 of 2:18.86.

Such was the depth of the race that the top five finishers ran under the Olympic Games standard of 15:10.00. 

In other races, Josh Kerr of the Brooks Beasts was impressive in winning the men's 1500.

Kerr took command of the race after Beasts teammate Brannon Kidder stepped off the track, and ran away with the victory in 3:35.78, making a statement that he will be a factor in the British Olympic trials race this summer.

Former UW volunteer coach Amos Bartelsmeyer made a late charge to take second in 3:38.54, while current volunteer coach Sam Prakel was sixth in 3:39.57.

In the women's 800, Beasts teammate Nia Akins won the race in 2:03.17, holding off a late charge from Olympia native Brooke Feldmeier, who ran 2:03.52.

Complete results of the Sound Running Invitational are available here.

UW ALUM JACK ROWE QUALIFIES FOR FINALS OF 3000 AT EUROPEAN INDOOR CHAMPS...


In Torun, Poland, former Washington Husky All-American Jack Rowe (photo courtesy British Athletics) advanced to Sunday's final of the men's 3000 meters Saturday morning at the European Athletics Indoor Championships at Arena Torun.

In the first heat, Rowe stayed near the front, then took the lead just past the 1500 meter mark.

He stayed at the front until the last lap when he was overtaken by Mohamed Katir of Spain and Narve Nordas of Norway, who ran 7:54.95 and 7:55.03, respectively.

Rowe hung on for the third and final automatic qualifying spot in 7:55.67.

Brian Fay of Ireland, who will join the Huskies this fall, finished seventh in the third and final heat, running 7:56.13.

The finals of the men's 3000 will be contested at 5:52 pm local time in Torun (8:52 am in Seattle).

Results of day 3 of the European Indoor championships and streaming information is available here.

NOTE: Sound Running and British Athletics contributed to this report.

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