The Washington University women’s track and field team captured its fifth consecutive University Athletic Association (UAA) Outdoor Championship this weekend in Pittsburgh, Pa. The men’s team came in second behind Emory University. The event was hosted by UAA rival Carnegie Mellon University.

The women’s team finished the meet with a total of 204.5 points to place them ahead of second-place Emory’s 181. The men’s team’s totaled 194 points, just behind Emory’s 205.

For the women’s team, the victory continued a dominating run for the team in UAA competition. The team has won the last 10 UAA track and field competitions, winning the last five indoor and outdoor titles sweeping the competition from 2000-2004. The title was their 14th overall since their first title in 1994.

The women’s team was led by junior Hallie Hutchens. Hutchens entered the competition with the top preliminary times in the 100- and 400-meter hurdles. Hutchens lived up to her advance billing by winning both those events. She clocked a 14.64 in the 100-meter and a 1:03.88 in the 400-meter. By virtue of her outstanding performance, Hutchens earned UAA Female Athlete of the year honors. Hutchens is a seven-time UAA outdoor champion.

Hutchens was not the only Bear who left the competition with an award though. Freshman Dalaina Martin’s 36.76-meter discus throw won her first place in the event and helped her win the UAA Female Rookie of the Year award.

The Bears won five other individual events in the competition. Senior Lindsey Clark-Ryan won the triple jump with a jump of 11.30 meters. Fellow senior Kammie Holt and sophomore Leah Sabin finished behind Clark-Ryan at second and third respectively in the event. Holt also finished first in the long jump with a leap of 5.54 meters for her 12th UAA title. In addition, junior Maggie Grabow won the 10,000-meter run with a time of 37:04:29. The Bears also won the 400 and 1,600-meter relays. Sophomore Katelin Gruber, freshman Natalie Badowski, Sabin and sophomore Julie McDermitt paced the 400-meter field with a time of 48.85. In the 1,600, sophomore Dorothy Gregg, Badowski and sophomores Laura Ehret and Michelle McCully won with a time of 3:54:56.

On the men’s side, the team failed to repeat as champion (they won last year) but did total four individual wins for the weekend. Sophomore David Skiba won the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.86. The mark was almost two seconds better than Skiba’s previous best and only half a second off of automatic NCAA Championships qualification. Senior Darius Viet also captured first place with a time of 9:15:42 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. That time was good enough to provisionally qualify Viet for the NCAA Championships and represented a season best for the team. Joining Skiba and Viet in the winner’s circle were senior Ryker Jones and junior Kyle Wagner. Jones won in the pole vault with a vault of 4.63 meters. Jones was also the winner of the 2003 and 2004 indoor titles. Wagner’s season-best throw of 48.59 meters also took home first place.

The Bears will return to action Saturday, May 1 at the Butler Twilight in Indianapolis, Ind.

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