WEEKEND WRAPUP: Busy two days of competition for Washington schools in the region...
Here's a recap of what went down over the last few days, with teams and athletes competing on Friday and Saturday:
In Berkeley, California, NCAA championship qualifiers Chandler Ault (Paul Merca photo) and Jonathan Birchman each posted top-10 marks in the nation this season to highlight a strong showing at the Brutus Hamilton Invitational hosted by California.
Chandler Ault had the best series of his career today to win the javelin competition with sophomore Jack Olsen taking second. Ault, the 2023 Pac-12 runner-up, went over 70-meters on all six of his throws, and he had three throws farther than his old career-best of 237-9 (72.47m), set two years ago while competing for Princeton.
Ault had his best of the day in round five at 243-3 (74.15m), then a final toss of 241-11 (73.74m).
Jonathan Birchman, who ran an unlooked for 50.16 at the Peyton/Shotwell Invitational in Tacoma on March 23rd, ran a Husky PR of 50.49.
Teammates Jonathan Frazier was second in a PR of 51.86, and freshman Boden Hanley also ran a PR in third of 52.46, with Matthew Wilkinson taking fourth in 52.66.
In the men's triple jump, freshman Trevontay Smith got a second-straight victory in the men's triple jump, backing up his PR last week with another strong jump of 50-7.25 (15.42m) into a headwind.
Defending Pac-12 co-champs Sara Borton & Nastassja Campbell finished 2-3 in the pole vault, each clearing 13-7.25 (4.15m).
In Burnaby, British Columbia, a longstanding school record was broken, as the men's 4x100 relay team set the Western Washington University record during Saturday's competition at the Emilie Mondor Invitational at Terry Fox Field on the Simon Fraser University campus.
WWU's quartet of Lucas Brenek, Ryan Greenwalt, Nolan Mickenham and Derek Fischer clocked 41.28 seconds in the sprint relay to take down the old mark of 41.35 set by Dan Lewis, Coby Dilling, Chris Susee and Mike Lynch during the 1997 season. Saturday's record time also moved into a tie for 3rd-best in GNAC history.
In Miramar, Florida, Washington State University alum Emmanuel Wells opened his season in the 100 meters at the Miramar Invitational Saturday, running 10.71 in the 100 dash to finish eighth in the first round.
In Renton on Friday, Western Washington ran away with twelve victories, with host Seattle Pacific taking five wins, and Seattle University winning four events at the Doris Heritage Invitational meet at Renton Stadium on a cool and cloudy afternoon.
Katie Potts of Western Washington recorded a personal-best throw of 45-2.25 (13.77m) in the shot put to break the record of 44-6 (13.56m) originally set by Sherie Schroeder in 1998. Potts won both the shot put and discus competition, setting a season-best mark of 151-8 (46.24m) in the discus.
The Vikings used their team depth to record team victories on both the men's and women's side, with the WWU men scoring 201 points well ahead of 2nd-place Pacific Lutheran with 111 points and the Viking women scoring 190.5 points to place ahead of PLU and SeattleU's 100.5 points.
In Spokane, Washington State 400 meter hurdler Jared McAlvey had a solid outing to win the race to highlight competition at the Whitworth Peace Meet on Friday.
McAlvey, the Pac-12 Conference runner up last year, ran 50.86 under cool conditions.
Caitlin Simmons of Eastern Washington, the defending Big Sky indoor champ, won the women's triple jump with a best of 41-8 (12.70m).
Former Eastern Washington standout Keshun McGee won the men's triple jump with a mark of 50-10.75 (15.51m).
In Monmouth, Oregon, Pan Am Games participant and USATF outdoor finalist Derek Holdsworth won the men's 800 at the John Knight Twilight meet hosted by Western Oregon Friday night under cool conditions.
Holdsworth, an alum of Western Oregon, won in 1:49.13, ahead of Central Washington's Johan Correa, who ran 1:50.47.
Correa doubled and won the 1500 in 3:54.06.
E'lexis Hollis of Central Washington won the women's 200 in 25.09. Ethan Guidry of Saint Martin's won the men's javelin with a toss of 200-2 (61.01m)
NOTE: The sports information offices of Whitworth University, Washington State, Western Washington, University of Washington, Seattle Pacific, Central Washington, and the University of California contributed to this report.
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