Brooks Beasts take down world record in distance medley relay at Oregon Relays...

EUGENE, Oregon--Seattle's Brooks Beasts made a statement in their outdoor season opener at the Oregon Relays at Historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon Friday night.

The team of Brannon Kidder, Brandon Miller, Isaiah Harris and anchor Henry Wynne (Paul Merca photo) took down the existing world record in the men's distance medley relay of 9:15.50 set by the US national team of Kyle Merber, Brycen Spratling, Brandon Johnson and Ben Blankenship at the IAAF World Relays on May 3, 2015 in Nassau, Bahamas, as the Beasts ran 9:14.58*.

*subject to the usual ratification procedure

With Seattle resident Sam Prakel running the opening leg for the DMR All Stars, a group consisting primarily of runners from UW coach Andy Powell's pro group, Kidder opened with a 2:49.60 1200 leg to Prakel's 2:49.77.

Miller, who was primarily a 400 meter specialist at Texas A&M  before transitioning to the 800, broke the race open with a 46.60 leg that Washington alum Sam Ellis of the DMR All Stars could not match, with Ellis running 49.06.

On the 800 leg, world championships team member Harris opened up more ground on the rest of the teams, running a 1:45.76 split before handing off to Wynne for the 1600 anchor leg.

Running essentially solo with only the pacing lights providing some semblance of competition, Wynne ran the first 800 in 1:57.49.

On his third lap, the pacing lights, which were set to the world record pace, started creeping up on Wynne, as he ran 58.51, with the lights almost catching him at the bell.

With Beasts head coach Danny Mackey and assistant Julian Flores running along the infield, Wynne put it into high gear, finishing with a 56.66 final 400, giving him a 1600 leg of 3:52.66 to stop the clock at 9:14.58, .92 seconds under the previous world record.

Courtesy of media partner RunnerSpace.com, here is the race footage:

Beasts coach Danny Mackey said afterwards, "That was a big surprise.  We knew the men had a shot but I figured being solo and it being an April opening race, the 800 and 1600 might be too much.  But all four of them race with a lot of heart.  You could see it in their effort.  I think them breaking the world record can be attributed to the culture on the team, they have a belief in themselves now and talk openly about what they want to achieve, then they go brick by brick in the process".

In the women's pro 800 meters, Valery Tobias of the Brooks Beasts finished fifth, while Olympia native Brooke Feldmeier took sixth in the women's pro 800.

Tobias, a first year pro from the University of Texas, ran 2:05.16, while Feldmeier finished one place behind Tobias with a tome of 2:06.40.

Olympian Raevyn Rogers took the win in 2:02.00.

Day 1 results of the Oregon Relays are available here.

In Walnut, California, the Washington sprint and jumps group were in action on day 3 of the Mt. SAC Relays at Hilmer Lodge Stadium.

Freshman Kapiolani Coleman came with a big PR for the native of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Coleman won her heat by more than a second-and-a-half as she broke 60-seconds in the 400m hurdles for the first time in 59.43 seconds.

Grad student Max Manson was in a three-way tie for first in the elite B section of the mens' pole vault with a clearance of 17-6.5 (5.35m), an outdoor season best.

Lauren Heggen picked up a PR for the second meet in a row, as she got out to 41-1.75 (12.54m) in the triple jump to finish fifth. That improves Heggen's number 5 mark on the Husky top-10 list. 

Action continues Saturday on the final day of the 4-day extravaganza.

Results of the Mt. SAC Relays are available here.

In Pullman, Washington State plays host to its first outdoor meet in over two years, as the Cougar Classic takes place Saturday at Mooberry Track on the WSU campus.

Eastern Washington and Idaho are the only other Division I schools competing in the meet, which also has teams from Lewis-Clark State, and Spokane Community College entered, plus a number of post collegians.

Action at the Cougar Classic begins at 10 am with the women's javelin, while the first running event starts at 12:10 pm with the women's 3000 steeple.

Washington State's release, which includes a link to live results, is available here.

Meanwhile, all four Washington Division II schools are in action, as Central Washington hosts the CWU Wildcat Invitational at the CWU Recreation Sports Complex on its campus, starting at 9 am with the women's hammer throw.

The first running event is the women's 100 hurdles at noon.

The Wildcats are spicing the meet up with an invitational section on all of the track races, with the top seeds in each of the running events starting at 3:30 pm, and lasting until the meet's conclusion before 7 pm.

Central Washington's release along with links to the meet program and live results is available here.

NOTE: RunnerSpace.com, the Mt. SAC Relays and the sports information offices of the University of Washington, Washington State University, and Central Washington University contributed to this report.

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