Bernell DorroughThis Saturday the Washington University track and field team held its annual WU invitational at Bushyhead Track and Francis Field.
At this invitational, teams that competed represented schools from all three NCAA divisions. Because of this, there was no team scoring, so it was up to each runner to put out their best for individual scores. Among the 79 events in the invitational – 39 women’s and 40 from the men – there were a number of Bears runners who placed highly in their respective events. 14 Bears runners finished in the top three spots in their event.
Among the first place finishers was senior Ryker Jones, who won the men’s pole vault with a height of 4.72 meters. Sophomore Dave Skiba also took home the gold in the men’s 110 meter hurdles with a time of 14.80 seconds. Senior Darius Viet came in first place in the 3000 meter steeplechase, finishing with a time of 9:23.39 minutes. Senior Renee Hires was very impressed with the outcome of the men’s steeplechase. “I was very impressed with how the men’s steeplechase went. Darius and Brennen [Bonner] did excellent.”
There were a number of second place finishers representing the Bears as well. Senior Kammie Holt finished in second in the women’s long jump with a distance of 5.49 meters. Junior Hallie Hutchens, the only Bears runner to place in two top three finishes, ran her way to second in the women’s 100 meter hurdles with a time of 15.11 seconds. She also finished third in the women’s 400 meter hurdles with a time of 1:05.31 minutes. Freshman Natalie Badowski ran the women’s 400 meter dash in 59.26 seconds, earning her a second place finish. Lastly, right behind teammate Ryker Jones, freshman Aaron Mangold finished in second in the men’s pole vault with a height of 4.57 meters.
The Bears earned their most top three finishes in the third place slot. Sophomore Leah Sabin ran the women’s 100 meter dash in 12.54 seconds while sophomore Andrea Moreland ran the 3000 meter steeplechase in 12:02.16 minutes. Sophomore Ginny Griffin came in third in the 10,000 meter run, taking a tiresome 38:34.22 to complete.
On the men’s side, Sophomore Greg Reindl ran the 800 meter run in 1:57.59 minutes and Senior Matt Wallace ran his event, the 200 meter dash, in 22.26 seconds. Sophomore Brennen Bonner also finished third in the 3000 meter steeplechase with a time of 9:35:91.
It should also be noted that the University “A” relay team won first place in the women’s 4 x 100 meter relay with a time of 48.71 seconds. Also, with a time of 3:59:71, the “A” team finished second in the women’s 4 x 400 meter relay.
Hires was very pleased with the team’s performance on Saturday. “Overall, we had a really good first outdoor meet,” she said. “This was our first chance to get out there in over a month and sometimes it’s hard doing well in the first outdoor meet of the season. Yet, people were still very competitive, and although some people didn’t do as well as they would have liked, there were still a number of personal bests that people were very happy about.”
She added, “I think that on Monday, Coach will say that he was very proud of us, even though some people weren’t so pleased.”