Simson Garcia | Sports Editor
Record setting performances were produced yet again as Western’s track and field teams took to the University of Washington invitational to display such feats on Jan. 26 and Jan. 27. Numerous changes were made in the record books for Western track including three school records, and one change to the national Division II list for the mile run. Five NCAA provisional qualifying marks were also generated throughout the weekend.
Western senior David Ribich finished third overall in the mile run and came to the finish in just under four minutes with a time of 3:58.88. That is second all-time in NCAA Division II history and the fastest time in 32 years for a Division II mile runner. In doing so, he was the 495th runner in U.S. history since 1957 to record a sub-4 minute mile finish.
Right behind him was junior Dustin Nading, who ran in an earlier heat of the men’s mile and accomplished his personal best time of 4:04.5, also a NCAA provisional qualifying mark and second all-time in the GNAC.
Nading and Ribich, along with teammates AJ Holmberg and Aaron Whitaker ran the distance-medley-relay event the day before winning there and earning an automatic qualifying mark finishing just ahead of four Division I schools. Holmberg, Nading and Ribich were part of the historical distance medley relay at the 2017 Indoor Championships where they were crowned national champions.
Adding more provisional qualifying marks were last year’s All-Americans for track in Olivia Woods and Suzanne Van De Grift. In the 800 meters, Woods and Van De Grift ran to 11 and 17th place finishes, respectively, earning times of 2:10.62 and 2:11.80.
Woods and Van De Grift then coupled with Megan Rose and Kennedy Rufener in the DMR to finish in eighth place with a time of 11:48.58 — also a NCAA provisional qualifying mark and school record.
Rufener, who ran individually in the cross country national championships in December, ran the 3,000 meters to a 9:56.05 time, another provisional qualifier mark to round out the multitude of Wolf achievements.
The Wolves return to the University of Washington on February 10-11 to compete in the Husky classic/open.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
Photo by: wouwolves.com
