Washington University in St. Louis’ men’s and women’s track and field teams turned in many strong performances at the WU Invitational this weekend on the Danforth Campus. The WU women won the 13-team meet, while the men placed sixth in a field of 18 teams.
Sophomore Alli Alberts highlighted the WU women during the first two days of the meet. She took second place in the heptathlon with a school-record breaking performance. Alberts totaled 4,285 points to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships and break the old WU record by 40 points. Among her strong performances in the competition, she placed first in the 800 meters (2:25.72), second in the long jump (4.81 meters, 15-9 1/2), third in the javelin (33.15m, 108-9) and high jump (1.57m, 5-1 3/4), and fourth in the 100 hurdles (15.91).
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| For weekend sports scores, go to BearSports |
Senior Natalie Badowski added another NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the 800 meters, finishing second in 2:13.90. The time was also less than a second shy of the school record.
Senior Delaina Martin turned in a strong performance in the hammer throw, narrowly missing an NCAA provisional mark by less than one meter. She won the event with a throw of 45.07m (147-10). Juniors Abbey Hartmann and Lisa Sudmeier paced the women’s distance runners for WU, finishing second (4:46.16) and third (4:50.02), respectively, in the 1,500-meter run.
On the men’s side, junior Jesse McDaniel cleared the provisional standard by posting a time of 31:13.33 in the 10,000 meters, which was good for second place. Sophomore Kevin Opp also took sixth place in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:00.30, while senior Ryan Lester notched a season-best time of 1:57.04 in the 800 meters.
In the sprints, freshman Iby Umana cleared the 50-second mark in the 400-meter dash, taking fourth place in 49.93. Additionally, the 4×400-meter relay squad posted a time of 3:18.85, missing the WU record and a NCAA provisional mark by a little more than one second.
Washington U. returns to action Friday-Saturday, April 6-7, when it hosts the WU Select Meet.