SEATTLE, Wash. – The Western Washington University Track & Field team wrapped up the first day of competition at the UW Invitational several standout performances at Dempsey Indoor on the University of Washington campus.
The two-day meet is scheduled to feature close to 40 Viking student-athletes, with competition resuming Saturday morning at 10 am. Fans can follow the meet online via Live Results and also watch the meet via FloTrack with a subscription.
OKEZIE DAZZLES IN 60m HURDLES
Freshman Koby Okezie (Tacoma, WA/Todd Beamer) led WWU’s contingent placing 9th in the prelims of the 60m hurdles, just missing a spot in Saturday’s final. The freshman clocked a PR of 8.43 to tie for the 6th-fastest time in WWU indoor history. Junior Cordell Cummings (Lake Stevens, WA/Arlington) place 12th with a season-best 8.56.
GALVEZ SETS PR IN 5,000m
Junior Sophia Galvez (Los Alamos, NM) finished 28th in the 5,000-meter race with a PR of 17:37.16 to move up to 5th in the WWU indoor record book. Galvez bested her previous PR of 17:48.71 set at last year’s UW Invite.
DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAYS ENTER RECORD BOOK
The men’s entry in the distance medley relay finished 8th out of 23 entries, recording the 3rd-fastest time in WWU history in 10:05.81. The foursome of junior Liam Cossette (Spokane, WA/Ferris), junior Cordell Cummings (Lake Stevens, WA/Arlington), senior Kyler Sager (Snohomish, WA/Everett CC) and junior James Jasperson (Lacey, WA/North Thurston/Everett CC) just missed the NCAA II provisional mark of 10:04.81.
WWU’s ‘A’ entry in the women’s distance medley relay placed 27th finishing in 12:26.04 for the 9th-fastest time in indoor program history. The Vikings entry consisted of freshman Rebecca Lehman (Spokane Valley, WA/University), redshirt freshman Mirannda Shulman (Kennewick, WA/Kamiakin/Portland State), sophomore Shawnee Konrad (Spokane, WA/Mount Spokane) and junior Aundrea Koger (Osage City, KS).
HEPTATHLON FIRST DAY RESULTS
WWU had a pair competitors in the heptathlon, with redshirt freshman Seren Dances (Port Townsend, WA) currently in 4th place out of 23 entries. Dances finished the first four (out of seven) events with 2,831 points, sparked 3rd-place finishes in the long jump (22-5.75/6.85m) and high jump (6-2/1.88m). Freshman Ian Rinefort (Ashland, OR) is in 20th place with 2,442 points, but looks to move up in the final three events on Saturday.
JUMPING VIKINGS
Junior Maddie Taylor (Seattle, WA/Auburn Mountainview) placed 5th out of 19 in the women’s high jump clearing 5-6.5/1.69m. In the men’s high jump, senior Tupre Wickliff (Vancouver, WA/Evergreen/Clark College) placed 8th (6-6/1.98m) and sophomore Garrett Davies (Vancouver, WA/Mountain View) was 17th (6-2/1.88m).
