Washington University Women Lead NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship

Washington University Women Lead NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship

From Washington University Athletics

After day one of the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field National Championships Friday, the No. 1-ranked Washington University women's team is in the lead in the team standings.

Chronological order of the Bears day one at the Division III Indoor Track & Field National Championships:

Women's Long Jump (Finals)

Sophomore Eka Jose earned All-American honors for the first time in her career. After earning a trip to indoor nationals last season in triple jump, Jose added to her repertoire this season with a long jump berth as well. She posted a distance of 5.76m on her second jump which proved to be the fourth best distance of the field on Friday's championship event. Jose recorded three jumps of 5.70-meters or longer.

Women's 60m Hurdles (Prelims)

Sophomore Caira Watson Haynes ran to a personal-best time en route to earning a spot in Saturday's final round of the 60m hurdles. She crossed the finish line in a blazing 8.78 seconds, which ties 2017 graduate Daisy Ogede for the top mark in WashU program history. Senior Jay Pittman ran alongside Watson Haynes in the second heat and posted her second sub-9.0 time of the year, 8.96. Watson Haynes placed seventh and Pittman was 13th out of 20 competitors to qualify for nationals.

Women's Pole Vault (Finals)

Senior Heidi Nassos earned a runner-up finish in the women's pole vault by clearing a career-best 3.95m. After passing on the initial height, Nassos rattled off five consecutive clearances before 4.00m ended the run. She took second on misses, while sophomore Julia Dannenbaum earned her first All-American honor of her career. The second-year Bear missed her first two jumps before clearing 3.45, 3.60 and 3.75-meters to take sixth place overall. Nassos and Dannenbaum's All-American finishes earned WashU 11 points which propelled the team into first place.

Women's 5,000m (Finals)

Graduate student Aly Wayne dropped more than 20 seconds off her career-best and previous school record 5,000m time to earn All-American honors. She crossed the finish line in 16:36.40 as only one of her 25 laps exceeded 41 seconds. Wayne earned her second All-American honor in the event. Junior Sophie Watterson also ran a personal-best on the banked track, by shedding more than 10 seconds off her top converted 5,000m time. She caught and passed a multitude of runners in the last 10 laps of the race to place ninth overall with a time of 17:05.85.

Women's Distance Medley Relay (Finals)

The women's distance medley relay continually improved as the season went on and the Bears final race together as a unit in 2019 proved no different. WashU dropped more than nine seconds off its time from a week ago that secured Division III's final qualifying time to nationals when senior Abby Martin, sophomore Rachel Novick, sophomore Sophie Grigaux and senior Molly Shepherd crossed the finish line in 11:48.00. Martin, Novick and Shepherd earned their first All-American honors of their careers by placing seventh overall and in the process added two more points to WashU's team total, 24. Grigaux earned All-American honors last season as a member of the indoor 4x400m relay team.