The final meet of the indoor season for the Washington University track and field teams closed out what may have been the best winter season ever for Wash. U. track and field.
Five Bears were named All-Americans, senior Tyler Jackson picked up an individual national championship, and the women’s team took third place overall in the 2012 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday and Saturday in Grinnell, Iowa.
“It was the greatest weekend we’ve ever had in school history,” head coach Jeff Stiles said. “To go to a national championship and even be around your best time is really good. And every single athlete either set a lifetime best or just missed a lifetime best. We may never duplicate that. That was unbelievable.”
Jackson, the only male entrant for Wash. U. on the weekend, became the first Wash. U. track and field athlete to win an individual indoor national championship—and the fourth to win any individual national championship—with his winning time of 7.93 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles.
Jackson’s time in the finals, according to Stiles, was the second-best time in the event ever recorded at the Division III level—despite an interesting shift in mindset from Jackson himself.
“At prelims [on Friday], I was real excited and just ran real hard and ran my personal best,” Jackson said. “And at finals, I was not nearly as excited as I thought I was [going to] be. I was pretty calm, but I was still ready to rock.”
Jackson set a season- and career-best with the time by cracking eight seconds for the first time.
“I got ahead of everyone and knew that I was ahead, and the main thing on my mind was just running hard, not losing momentum, because one of my problems in the past is that I’ll go over a hurdle and just mess up something a little bit and lose too much momentum.
“It could have been, technically, a much better race, but it was a really powerful race.”
Stiles had high praise for Jackson that went far beyond his success in Grinnell.
“He really just came into his own this season and just went to a level he’s never been. What he did is unbelievable,” Stiles said. “Tyler Jackson gives 1,000 percent in everything he does. He knows nothing else.”
By winning the event, Jackson picked up 10 points for Wash. U., which gave the men’s team an 18th-place finish in the final tally.
On the women’s side, five different events featured seven Wash. U. athletes, who combined for 30 points to bring the team to third place overall.
While no entry in the women’s meet brought home a national title, the Bears gathered second-place finishes in two events. Senior Erica Jackey took second place in the mile run at 4:52.66, just .67 seconds behind champion Christy Cazzola of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and senior Liz Phillips was right behind Jackey in third place with a time of 4:53.78.
But this wasn’t your typical national championship race.
“The finals were probably one of the most dramatic track races of my entire running career,” Jackey said. “About halfway through, someone running behind me tripped me, and I went down and was rolling on the track. I was pretty pissed off because I’d been looking forward to this race for a long time. So I just tried to catch up as best as I could without losing too much energy.”
After another runner tripped, Jackey rallied all the way up to second before racing with Cazzola—who had edged Jackey out in the cross-country season—in the race’s final lap, narrowly missing out on first.
“She ended up getting me, but it was great,” Jackey said. “Liz came in third right behind me, so we scored a ton of points in the mile for the team. It was exciting. I was definitely bummed about the fall, but it happens, and it’s how you react that matters.”
The Bears’ other second-place finish came in the distance medley relay, in which Jackey, sophomores Shannon Howell and Elizabeth Worley, and Phillips finished just four seconds behind the winning relay while setting a school record in the process. Other competitors for the Bears were freshman Lucy Cheadle, who took sixth place in the 5000-meter run at 17:19.65, sophomore Jasmine Williams, who placed tenth in the high jump at a height of 1.65 meters, and sophomore Anna Etherington, whose height of 3.85 meters in the pole vault was good for fourth place.
On a whole, the meet was incredibly successful for the women’s squad, as Stiles said it went about as well as he realistically hoped it could.
“In my mind, going in, I thought we’d score somewhere between eight and 30 points,” Stiles said. “30 points being a perfect meet, eight being somewhat disappointing. And we scored 30. We scored what I thought would be at the extreme end of a perfect meet.”
Jackey, Phillips, Cheadle, Etherington and Jackson also each earned All-America honors.
While the women’s team just missed out on a national championship, the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced that Wash. U. currently leads the standings in the NCAA Division III Women’s Program of the Year standings, thanks to its third-place finish and its cross-country national championship.
With second-place Wartburg College just three points behind—meaning Wash. U. would clinch a title with a third-place finish or better in the spring—the Bears know they must keep up the strong performances as they head into the spring season. And for the team’s seniors in their final semester:
“That’s pretty amazing. Since I was a freshman on this team, we’ve come a really long way,” Jackey said. “Winning a national championship in the fall was absolutely amazing, and we were really happy to get third in track as well. Everyone wants to have an amazing senior year, and it doesn’t happen to everyone, but I’m really glad it’s happened for our team. It’s always good to end on a high, and we still have outdoor left…I fully believe we can hold on to that top spot, and we’ll do our best, and we’ll see what happens.”
Wash. U. will kick off its outdoor season by hosting the Washington University Mini Meet on Friday, March 23, beginning at 5 p.m.