Dawgs Tally PRs As UW Invite Concludes
SEATTLE - The UW Invitational wrapped up inside the Dempsey today, as the Huskies had a small group in action, just five competitors in uniform on the men's side and four on the women's side, but there were still a number of personal-bests to be earned. Evan Mafilas had a big win in the 400-meters, while in the women's mile Kelly Makin and Madison Heisterman locked up a pair of new PRs.
Mafilas went out aggressively in the 400-meters and was able to sustain the early effort through to a new indoor PR of 47.59. That was nearly half a second faster than his previous indoor PR, and closing the gap significantly with his outdoor personal-best of 46.90. Mafilas' time was just .05 seconds off the Husky indoor top-10 list.
Competing unattached, Julian Body was third in the 400m in 48.45, and Kemuel Santana had an indoor PR of 48.73. Freshman Jonathan Birchman also improved on his season-opener from two weeks back as he went 49.67 today.
Birchman also had a 60m hurdles season-best of 8.31, while Body ran a best of 8.16 today.
Santana's busy day also included a win in the 60-meters in 6.95 seconds, and a runner-up in the 200-meters in 21.92, as Mafilas got the win in the 200m as well with a mark of 21.78.
In a very strong women's mile field, Makin used a big final lap kick to knock a dozen seconds off her old PR, as she crossed the line in 4:41.18. That time puts Makin up to 25th in the NCAA this season and crushed her old best of 4:53.46. Katie Rainsberger tallied another solid mile run in 4:44.38 and right behind her was Heisterman, who had yet to officially race a mile in college, but she made a strong first impression with a time of 4:45.35.
In the women's 800-meters, sophomore Marlena Preigh was fourth overall in a time of 2:07.77, nearly a full second faster than two weeks ago, and up to 28th in the descending order lists.
The Huskies will have one last go in the Dempsey this indoor season, as the Husky Classic will go in two weeks, from Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 25-27.