Dawgs' Jayden White places fourth in weight throw at NCAA indoor championships...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama--Jayden White (photo courtesy UW Athletics) improved six spots from his tenth place finish to place fourth in the 35-pound weight throw on the opening day of the NCAA Division I indoor track & field championships at the CrossPlex Friday.

White, the school record holder in the event at 74-1 (22.58m), began his series with a toss of 72-7.75 (22.14m), a foul, then two throws of 72-1.75 (21.99m) and 71-11.5 (21.93m).

The Everett native entered the fifth round in sixth, before unleashing hist best throw of the day, a mark that measured 73-6.75 (22.42m) to temporarily vault him into third, before Jake Wicket of Kent State overtook him later in the round with a throw of 75-8.75 (23.08m) to ultimately get second.

White then fouled in the final round and stayed in fourth, as Bobby Colantonio of Alabama, who led from the beginning, improved to 77-5.25 (23.60m) to salt away the victory.

White is the first Husky to score in the weight since Neil Kneip in 1986.

Brian Fay finished sixth in the 5000 meters in 13:28.48 to earn his second All-America honor of the school year.  His finish is the highest placing by a UW runner in the 5000 indoors or outdoors at the NCAA championships.

Fay picked off four runners on the final lap to jump from tenth to sixth, running his last 200 in 28.19.

However, the top four finishers, led by winner Abdihamid Nur of Northern Arizona's 13:19.01, all ran under the meet record of 13:23.77 set by Wesley Kiptoo of Iowa State last year. Kiptoo ended up finishing 12th Friday afternoon.

With Fay running the 5000, the UW distance medley relay team switched its order, putting Joe Waskom on the 1200 leg, and Luke Houser, who ran the opening leg in their collegiate leading mark of 9:21.10 at Arkansas three weeks ago, on the 1600 anchor, where Fay was.

The team of Waskom, Anthony Smith, Cass Elliott & Houser, finished seventh in 9:29.27, as Texas took the win in 9:25.20.

Waskom ran 2:54.83 on the 1200, while Smith ran 47.08 on the 400. Elliott ran 1:48.77 on the 800, and Houser finished with a 3:58.61 on the 1600.

Tacoma native Jack Yearian of Oregon got the last qualifying spot for Saturday's final in the mile, as he finished sixth in the first heat, running 3:59.03, while Colton Johnsen of Washington State was seventh in the second heat in 4:03.30.

Washington State's Sam Brixey earned the final spot for Saturday's finals in the 60 hurdles, as he tied his personal best of 7.69 in finishing fourth in the first heat.

It was a bit of a rough outing for the Washington women in the second session of Friday's competition.

In the mile, Anna Gibson finished sixth in her heat of the mile in 4:37.70, while Madison Heisterman was eighth in the previous heat in 4:42.51.

Haley Herberg finished 11th in the 5000, running 15:58.80, as BYU's Courtney Wayment won in 15:30.17.

Washington's distance medley relay team of Taylor Chiotti, Victoria Gersch, Carley Thomas & Allie Schadler suffered a major setback, as Chiotti fell on the opening leg, and the Dawgs could never get back into contention, finishing 11th in 11:11.58.

Despite the fall, which put them nearly fifteen seconds behind at the first handoff, there were some positive signs.

Gersch ran 53.87 on the 400 leg, and Carley Thomas, who has been fighting to regain the form from three years ago when she qualified for the 2019 world championships in the 800, ran the fastest 800 split, clocking 2:03.06.

Oregon State, with former Seattle Pacific All-American Kaylee Mitchell on the lead leg, finished fourth in 10:58.76. Mitchell actually gave the Beavers the lead, splitting 3:20.46.

Woodinville native Olivia Markezich helped Notre Dame to an eighth place finish in 11:05.60, as she ran 4:35.49 on the 1600 anchor leg.

Saturday's first session will see Tacoma's Jack Yearian of Oregon in the finals of the mile, and the men's 60 hurdles final 40 minutes later with WSU's Sam Brixey.

Colton Johnsen of WSU returns for the 3000 at 3 pm.

The women's session starts at 5 pm with the mile finals. One hour later, Mitchell and Lake Stevens native Taylor Roe of Oklahoma State run in the finals of the 3000 meters.

The home page for the NCAA Division I track and field championships is available here, with links to live results, start lists, and the time schedule.

ESPN3 will stream the meet live, while a re-air of the meet will take place Sunday, March 13 on ESPNU starting at 6:30 pm.

SPU'S ANNIKA ESVELT FINISHES EIGHTH IN 5000 AT D2 NATIONALS...

Seattle Pacific standout Annika Esvelt posted a personal-best time of 16 minutes, 31.12 seconds on Friday, taking eighth place at the NCAA Division II championships in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Esvelt, who came in as the eighth seed, ran with the lead pack right from  the starting gun. Even as a couple other runners from the chase pack gradually moved ahead of her, Esvelt still had enough left to hang on for the final spot on the awards podium.

"I tried to put myself in a good position, and that's what I did," Esvelt said. "I knew it went out a lot faster than I was used to, and I was pretty sure I was going to die at some point. So I just went until I couldn't anymore, and I did not fall off enough to lose that many places. So I'm really happy with it."

Meanwhile, Western Washington's Mac Franks qualified for the finals in the 800, taking second in the third preliminary heat. His time of 1:51.41 was the fifth-fastest in the opening rounds. He will race at 4:25 pm PT in the 800m finals.

Earlier in the meet, Franks missed qualifying for the finals in the mile, running 4:08.61, placing fourth in his heat.

Along with Franks, Viking senior Beau Sheeran will compete in the men's high jump on Saturday starting at 1:30 pm PT.

The home page for the NCAA Division II championships is available here.

Streaming coverage of the NCAA Division II championships is available here.

While the NCAA indoor championships continue Saturday, all four GNAC schools will compete at the Pacific Lutheran University Open meet in Tacoma.

Field events begin at 10:00 a.m. with the long jump. Track events start at 11:00 a.m. The last event (the 4 x 400) is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

The link to live results at the PLU Open is available here.

NOTE: The USTFCCCA, NCAA, and the sports information offices of the University of Washington, Washington State University, Seattle Pacific, and Western Washington University contributed to this report.

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