NCAA & Trials qualifier Cass Elliott opens with fifth place finish in 400H at Raleigh...

RALEIGH, North Carolina--NCAA and US Olympic Trials qualifier Cass Elliott (Paul Merca photo) opened up his 2022 campaign in the 400 hurdles with a fifth place finish to highlight action on the track on day 3 of the adidas Raleigh Relays Saturday at the Paul Derr Track & Field Facility on the campus of North Carolina State University.

Elliott, who primarily ran the 800 and the 400 during the indoor campaign, ran 51.89 to finish fourth in his section and fifth overall.

Freshman Matt Wilkinson lowered his season-best to 53.70, and Jonathan Birchman ran 54.13. Wilkinson was 8th overall, with Birchman 11th.

Indoor weight throw All-American Jayden White threw the hammer 213-6 (65.08m) to take second overall.

In the women's hammer, Beatrice Asomaning put up a huge personal-best. She threw 178-0 (54.25m), fourteen feet farther than her old PR to finish 13th.

The women's long jump saw Jelani Heath put up best mark since the 2020 indoor season, as she went 19-2.75 (5.86m) to finish fourth overall.

Victoria Gersch and Ida Eikeng both continued stellar weekends with nearly identical times in the women's 200-meters. Gersch, who went to No. 8 at UW in the 400-meters yesterday, tied for the No. 9 200m time today in 24.12. That was .01 ahead of Eikeng's time, though Eikeng ran into a -1.8 headwind. That was good enough to place the duo fourth and fifth on the day.

Washington will split its team to two meets--the Stanford Invitational, and the West Coast Relays in Fresno next weekend.

Complete results of the adidas Raleigh Relays are available here.

In Missoula, Montana, the Eastern Washington men's 4 x 100 relay team of Joe Gauthier, Daniel Gaik, Liam Bracken, and Logan Allen won in a time of 41.11 to highlight competition at the Al Manuel Invitational hosted by the University of Montana.

Other Eastern Washington winners on the day included Katie Petsch in the 100 (12.01), and Alyssa Hoffman in the 400 hurdles (64.66).

The Eagles will compete next weekend at the Hayward Premiere at Historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.

Complete results of the Al Manuel Invitational are available here.

In Tacoma, athletes from Seattle Pacific racked up a dozen wins, while Central Washington each picked up five wins at the Peyton/Shotwwell Invitational on the campus of the University of Puget Sound.

Highlights included the Falcons winning the women's 4 x 100 in 47.00, and both 4 x 400s in 3:26.32, and 3:49.64, all of which currently lead the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

NCAA indoor qualifier Annika Esvelt of SPU won and broke the 4:40 mark for the first time, finishing in 4:39.08. That was nearly six seconds faster than the 4:44.80 that she ran last week at the Doris Heritage Festival.

Central Washington's Avery Fisk took home wins in both the women's discus throw with a mark of 139-7 (42.56m)  and the shot put with a mark of 42-4.25 (12.91m).

Complete results of the Peyton/Shotwell Invitational are available here.

NOTE: The sports information offices of the University of Washington, University of Montana, Eastern Washington, Seattle Pacific, and Central Washington Washington contributed to this report.

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