Akins runs American indoor best to highlight Ken Shannon Last Chance; Schultz repeats Big Sky PV title...
SEATTLE--In the season indoor home finale for the Washington Huskies at Dempsey Indoor, Nia Akins (Paul Merca photo) of the Brooks Beasts, coming off a disappointing performance at last week's USATF Indoor Championships in Albuquerque where the defending champ at 800 finished third and missed a spot going to Glasgow for next weekend's World Athletics Indoor Championships, gained a measure of revenge by running an American indoor record.
Paced by Seattle resident Rebecca Mehra, Akins stopped the clock at 1:58.27, the fastest indoor time, besting the mark set by Ajee' Wilson of 1:58.29 set on February 8, 2020 at the Millrose Games in New York.
That said, it will not be recognized by USATF or World Athletics because of the Dempsey's 307 meter distance (indoor or short track records can be set on 200 meter tracks or less). It is, however recognized as the third fastest time in the world this season behind Habitam Amelu of Ethiopia's 1:57.86, and Jemma Reekie of Great Britain's 1:58.24. It's also the first time that 2 minutes has been broken at the Dempsey in women's competition.
Behind Akins, NCAA indoor runner-up Juliette Whittaker of Stanford missed breaking 2 minutes in second at 2:00.09. Washington's Wilma Nielsen may have clinched a spot in the NCAA championships in fourth place with an indoor personal best 2:02.26, and the Huskies' Marlena Preigh was sixth in a personal best 2:03.34.
The Dempsey saw its 300th sub-four-minute mile this weekend and now 200 different men have broken the mark.
After all five finishers in Friday's invitational mile broke four minutes, the list stood at 297.
In the top section of the mile, Miguel Coca of Adams State led the charge, winning in 3:56.37, while Cal's Garrett MacQuiddy got the honor of being the 300th man under 4 minutes in third at 3:58.82.
With his eighth place finish in 3:59.54, Husky redshirt freshman Evan Jenkins of Camas became the 21st Dawg to go under 4 minutes, and the 15th under coach Andy Powell.
Other highlights:
--In the heptathlon, Washington State's Lee Walburn finished second with a personal best 5690 points. The Huskies' Jami Schlueter was third with 5668, while Mason Mahacek of WSU was 13th with 5070 points, despite not starting the 1000, as he appears to be safe as one of the top 16 with his score of 5762 from the New Mexico Collegiate Classic. Bruno Comin Pescador of the Huskies, who was bumped down to number 5 on the D1 descending order list, only finished three heptathlon events, and paced the 1000 for the field.
--While Washington State ran away with the women's distance medley relay in 11:18.57, the real drama came in second, as Western Washington's team of Sophie Wright, Caitlyn Cheney, Emmy Kroontje, and Ila Davis ran 11:27.45 to move all the way to sixth on the NCAA D2 list;
--USC's mens 4 x 400 relay team set a Dempsey meet and facility record, running 3:04.95.
SCHULTZ REPEATS AS BIG SKY POLE VAULT CHAMP; SIMMONS ADDS TRIPLE JUMP TO LONG JUMP CROWN AT BIG SKY...
In Spokane, Eastern Washington senior Savannah Schultz (photo courtesy EWU Athletics) repeated as Big Sky Conference pole vault champion on the final day of the championships at The Podium Saturday.
Schultz cleared 13-11 (4.19m) to become the fourth best pole vaulter in conference history and the second in school history.
It's the third-straight Big Sky indoor champion for EWU in the women's pole vault as Schultz repeats after winning in 2023. Morgan Fossen won as part of podium sweep in 2022. The Eagles have won the event seven times and earned 21 top-3 finishes.
Junior Caitlin Simmons didn't skip a beat after winning the women's long jump on Friday, extending her stranglehold on the EWU triple jump record with a spectacular 41-10 (12.75m) jump, over 6 inches beyond her previous Eagle record set back two weeks ago in Seattle and over a foot beyond the second place finisher on Saturday.
Sophomore Kris Phennicie narrowly missed a personal best with a 6.82 in the men's 60-meter dash, earning 3rd in his first Big Sky Championship opportunity for valuable team points.
Senior Madelyn Knight went stride for stride with Idaho State's Kyndal Martin in the women's 60-meter hurdles, running an 8.38 — just .01 off her school record time of 8.37 — to earn all-conference honors and a silver medal. Martin ran a blistering 8.28, good for 2nd in Big Sky history, to snag the win.
As a team, EWU finished with 48 points on the women's side, good for 6th place. The men earned 32.5 points for 9th.
In the men's competition, Northern Arizona, the nation's number one ranked team, won handily with a 190-119 point advantage over second place Montana State's 119 and Idaho's 69.
The Lumberjacks took the women's crown as well, scoring 204 points to Montana State's 107 and Idaho State's 69.
NOTE: The Big Sky Conference, and the sports information offices at the University of Washington and Eastern Washington University contributed to this report.
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