From Washington University Athletics
Two individuals claimed their first career University Athletic Association (UAA) titles, and the 18-year-old women's 100-meter school record was broken to highlight a strong first day at the UAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships for the Washington University in St. Louis men's and women's track & field teams Saturday at Emory University.
The WashU men scored 85 points on day one to enter Sunday with a 41-point lead over second-place New York University. The WashU women sit in fourth place with 42 points after the first day. The University of Chicago leads the women's team race with 76 points, followed by Case Western Reserve University (53) and host Emory (50) in second and third, respectively.
Senior Ian Montague and freshman Michael Billington each earned their first individual UAA titles to highlight 12 all-UAA finishes for the Bears Saturday. Montague won the men's hammer throw with a career-best mark of 46.53 meters. Four of his six throws would have won the event, and all four were better than his previous career-best of 45.36m from 2012. Senior Zach Lonneman added a fifth-place finish in the hammer with a career-best mark of 43.39m, and also finished fifth in the shot put (13.72m).
Billington saved his best jump for last, moving from third to first to win the men's long jump with a mark of 6.74m on his sixth leap of Saturday's competition. Senior Nick Alaniva added all-UAA honors with a season-best mark of 6.58m to finish as the runner-up, and junior Alex Arteagaadded a fourth-place finish with a season-best 6.49m.
Sophomore Daisy Ogede did not compete in any event finals Saturday, but clocked the fastest prelim times in the women's 100, 200 and 100 hurdles. Her time of 12.08 in the 100 was nearly 0.4 of a second faster than the second-best time of the prelims, and broke the 18-year-old school record of 12.14 set by Claudine Rigaud in 1997. Sophomore Kelli Hancock turned in the third-fastest time in WashU history (1:01.69) to finish with the fastest prelim time in the women's 400 hurdles Saturday.
WashU had all-UAA finishes in six other events Saturday. Senior Julie Mulvaney-Kemp (38:29.23) and sophomore Sarah Curci (38:30.93) finished second and third, respectively, in the women's 10,000. The Bears also took second and third in the men's 10,000, with sophomore Ryan Becker finishing as the runner-up (32:00.95) and freshman Ian Whittall placing third (32:02.19).
Freshman Alison Lindsay added a runner-up finish for the WashU women in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 11:10.79. Freshman Audrey Western (11:36.03) and junior Tori Cooke (11:56.65) both ran season-best times to finish fourth and eighth, respectively. In the men's 3,000 steeplechase, junior Peter Metz ran to all-UAA honors for the first time in his career, placing third with a career-best time of 9:32.20. Senior Andrew Catanese (9:38.42) and freshman Andrew de Jong (9:40.86) followed in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Senior Troy Makous and Alaniva both cleared season-best heights to place second and third in the men's pole vault. Makous cleared the same height (4.77m) as Mark Kulinski of Case, but Kulinski won the UAA title by virtue of fewer misses in the competition. Alaniva cleared 4.72m to place third, and sophomore Andy Manzanares was eighth with a clearance of 4.27m. Both Makous and Alaniva picked up all-UAA honors in the event for the third time in their careers. Senior Claire Simons added a runner-up finish for WashU in the women's pole vault with a mark of 3.35m.
The WashU women scored team points in three other events Saturday, including a fifth-place finish for the 3,200 relay team of junior Nicole Migotsky, freshman Heather Hurlbut, freshman Mattie Gottbrath and sophomore Molly Kuhs (9:25.42). Freshman Julia Fraenkel recorded an eighth-place finish in the long jump with a season-best mark of 4.82m, and sophomore Betsy Wiener had a career-best toss of 35.17m to place eighth in the hammer throw.
In addition to Ogede's and Hancock's performances, WashU had seven other season-best and two other career-best performances during Saturday's running prelims. The Bears will have at least one athlete competing in all eight field events and all 20 running event finals Sunday.