A week before Washington University’s track and field team hopes to extend one record and tie another as a group, junior Josh Clark set a school mark of his own on Friday.

With a scorching time of 3:49.57 in the 1,500-meter race, the second fastest in Division III this season, Clark bested an 11-year school record by nearly two seconds at the Rose-Hulman Twilight Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind.

Beyond Clark’s victory, the Bears won four additional events on the men’s side to finish a narrow second in the team standings while the women posted eight victories to run away to an easy team win.

“It feels good,” Clark said about his achievement. “It was one of my goals coming into the year, was to set the school record and qualify for nationals. Hopefully the time that I just ran will get me there.”

Finishing behind Clark was Wash. U. sophomore Dillon Williams, who edged out three runners from Wabash College to take second place. Clark said that the Wabash runners helped set the pace early and propel him to his record time.

“It was beautiful weather, no wind, and two guys from Wabash were helping set the pace to make sure it went really fast,” he said. “I just tailed along for 800 meters and then tried to hold onto the pace for the last 700. Everything went right, or almost perfectly.”

Clark said that after hitting the 800-meter mark with the two leaders in 2:03, he kept the pace for the next 300 meters before quickening on the last 400 en route to a 59-second last-lap finish.

Another mid-distance specialist with a big day was junior Emily Warner, who chipped in with victories both in and outside her usual list of events. Her 400 time of 56.55 seconds marked the fifth fastest in Division III this season, while Warner sprinted with sophomores Kelli Hancock, Rebecca Ridderhoff and Daisy Ogede to win the 400 relay. Ogede also added a pair of individual victories in the 100 dash and 100 hurdles.

Other event winners for the women included freshmen Annalise Wagner (800) and Alison Lindsay (1,500), sophomore Annie Marggraff (3,000) and senior Claire Simons (pole vault). For the men, that list spanned all grade levels, with freshman Andrew de Jong (3,000 steeplechase), sophomore Zach Teed (3,000), junior Joey Pasque (high jump) and senior Nick Alaniva (pole vault) tallying victories.

“There were so many really good performances,” head coach Jeff Stiles said. “It was guys, girls up and down the line. You could give me every event and I could find something really good in the event.”

Because of academic commitments, several of the team’s top athletes could not make the trip to Indiana, and others did not compete as fully because they are trying to stay fresh in advance of next week’s University Athletic Association Outdoor Championships.

“I think it just shows that we have a really deep, good team that we can constantly finish first or second at every meet even when we’re not running all our best runners or we’re not running all our best events,” Clark said.

Of the team’s five outdoor meets this season, both the men and women have won four. Stiles praised the team’s consistency in its week-to-week performance.

“Just being consistent is something any coach in any sport wants to see from their athletes,” he said.

At next week’s UAA championship, the Bears will attempt to put the finishing touches on a year of consistent conference dominance. Wash. U. is the only school to win five of six UAA titles in a year—the six coming for men and women in cross-country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field.

The Bears accomplished the feat in 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2011-12, and with three of four titles already secured this year, the team will need to sweep the outdoor titles to match their Wash. U. predecessors.

For the men, another streak is on the line: six consecutive UAA outdoor titles, already a record, and Clark said that the team’s main goal is simply to continue that run of success.

“We don’t want to be the team that breaks that streak,” he said.