Four Records Fall As Well-Rounded Dawgs Impress In Dempsey

SEATTLE – 2023 is off to a record-breaking start for the Husky track and field team as the Dawgs had one of their most impressive Dempsey openers in years on Saturday at the UW Indoor Preview. There were eighteen new marks written into the UW top-10 lists, including four school records, many from new Dawgs competing for the first time at home in the Husky singlet.
 
The first three records came in events that are not contested at the NCAA Indoor meet, but that didn’t make them any less impressive. Reigning Pac-12 Track Champions Carley Thomas (800m) and Cass Elliott (400m Hurdles) both converged on the 600-meters, and both earned school records. Elliott’s time of 1:16.51 was an all-time Dempsey Record, for good measure. And defending NCAA 1,500m Champ Joe Waskom shattered the school record in the 1,000-meters today in 2:18.77.
 
Late in the meet, the fourth record came in the 3,000-meters, a championship event that all great UW men’s distance runners have taken a shot at in the Dempsey over the years. Kieran Lumb ran it faster than any Dawg prior, taking over the NCAA lead with a blazing 7:43.27, breaking Colby Gilbert’s 2017 record by more than two seconds. It’s the first indoor school record for Lumb, who owns the outdoor 10,000-meters school record.

?? Your new NCAA LEADER and ???????????? ????????????-???????????? in the 3,000-meters ??

Kieran Lumb a dominant 7??:4??3??.2??7?? to break Colby Gilbert’s six-year-old record.

The FOURTH record of the day and the first in a Championship event ????#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/4EDrCtKRmv

— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) January 15, 2023

 
Eight of the eighteen marks were turned in by transfers, redshirt freshmen, or freshmen in their first official home meets.
 
Among those marks were three in the women’s and men’s pole vault. First in the women’s vault, two transfers from the SEC matched each other up over the 14-foot mark. Nastassja Campbell, formerly an All-American at Arkansas, and Sara Borton from Tennessee, each made 14-0 ½ which puts them in a tie for fifth in the NCAA thus far. It was a lifetime-best for Borton, just a sophomore, and the two also became the sixth and seventh Husky women…