UW's Sofia Cosculuella and Jami Schlueter stand seventh as Mt. SAC Relays gets underway...
WALNUT, California--After the first day of competition at the Mt. SAC Relays Combined Events at Hilmer Lodge Stadium, Washington's Sofia Cosculuella (Paul Merca photo) and Jami Schlueter both find themselves in seventh place at the break in the heptathlon, and decathlon.
Cosculuella, the reigning Spanish national champion in the heptathlon, finished day 1 with a four event total of 3430 points, 280 points off the lead held by Beatrice Juskeviciute.
The Husky freshman started her day by running 13.50 in the 100 hurdles, then cleared 5-4.5 (1.63m) in the high jump.
She then threw the shot 38-4.25 (11.69m), before finishing day one with a time of 24.13 in the 200.
Schlueter, who is a better second day competitor, began by running 10.78 in the 100, then long jumped 22-9.25 (6.94m).
In the shot put, he managed to throw 47-2.25 (14.38m), then high jumped 6-3.5 (1.92m), then closed out day 1 with the 400, run in 49.10.
Former California standout Hakim McMorris leads the competition with a score of 4351 points.
Up the road in Azusa, the Bryan Clay Invitational got underway at Cougar Stadium on the campus of Azusa Pacific University.
The only events contested Wednesday were the numerous heats of the 10000 and steeplechases for both men and women.
In the early morning (8:30 am) section of the men's 10000, Eastern Washington's Noah Hasselblad won in a time of 29:28.94, which is a new EWU school record.
Cashmere native Rob McManus of Montana State finished second in the top section of the men's steeplechase, running 8:26.83, under his previous personal best of 8:29.58.
In the same heat, Washington State's Kelvin Limo was tenth in 8:42.47, while last year's Pac-12 steeple champ and NCAA 1500 meter winner Joe Waskom was 12th in 8:43.87.
Waskom entered the meet with a personal best of 8:35.71, run four years ago at the 2021 Pac-12 championships in Los Angeles.
Seattle Pacific's Maya Ewing finished eighth in her heat of the open section of the women's 10000, running 10:27.61. The time is the ninth fastest in GNAC history, and lowered her own school record set two weeks ago at Stanford of 10:35.63.
Teammate Annika Esvelt finished 13th in her section of the 10000, running 33:34.30 to maintain her hold on the fourth best mark in conference history.
Other sections of the men's and women's 10000 were still being contested at the time of posting.
UPDATE (10:23 am, 4/17): In a race that finished close to midnight and after we posted, Western Washington's Ryan Clough and Andrew Oslin finished 11th and 12th in 29:31.25 and 29:32.92. Those were the two fastest times in school history, breaking the old school record of 29:40.69, set two years ago by George Karamitsos.
One mark we missed from the invitational men's steeple was that of former Western standout Jeret Gillingham, now competing for Northern Arizona as a grad transfer. Gillingham was eighth in 8:32.00.
NOTE: The Mt. SAC Relays and the Bryan Clay Invitational contributed to this report.
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