SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Husky track and field squad will have its largest group ever traveling to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, within the current qualifying format. Twenty total Huskies are bound for Austin, Texas to try and rustle up as many team points as possible in the final meet of the season from June 7-10.
On the final day at Sacramento State’s Hornet Stadium, the women’s team added four more qualifiers to bring their total advancing athletes to seven, while the men finished on Friday with 13 qualifiers. Washington’s previous best in the current format, which dates back to 2010, was 16 qualifiers both last season and in 2016.
The women went four-for-four in punching tickets today on the track, as Anna Gibson and Sophie O’Sullivan both made it in the 1,500-meters, Kayley DeLay qualified in the steeplechase, and Carley Thomas rounded out the squad by advancing through in the 800-meters.
O’Sullivan’s run was a stunner, as she shattered the Washington School Record, winning her quarterfinal heat in 4:08.06. That was a NCAA Prelims record for either region, and also ranks O’Sullivan as the 11th-fastest runner in collegiate history.
Just a few weeks ago O’Sullivan’s 1,500-meters PR was 4:17.46, which she ran at the Payton Jordan Invite on Apr. 22. She then went to the Pac-12 Championships and ran 4:16.29 in the prelims, then cut four seconds off that PR in the Pac-12 finals, going 4:12.19 for fourth. She had another 4:17 time two days ago to win the first round before amazingly cutting another four seconds off her career-best in today’s quarterfinal.
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SOPHIE, WHAT??!?!
Sophie O’Sullivan just destroyed the ???????????? ???????????? with an NCAA-leading time that puts her #?1?1? in »NCAA HISTORY«
Oh and she’s headed to Austin! ??#GoHuskies x #NCAATF | ?? ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/iDg0k4tbm5
— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) May 28, 2023
No Husky had ever broken the 4:10 mark before. Katie Follett had held the School Record for 13 years, since she ran 4:10.66 during the 2010 season. O’Sullivan broke that by more than two-and-a-half seconds.
It will be O’Sullivan’s first individual NCAA Championship appearance. She ran on the DMR indoors.
Joining her will be Gibson, who made it back to the final site in the 1,500-meters for the second year in a row with a stellar effort in an extremely strong first quarterfinal heat. Gibson stayed in the middle of the pack and never lost touch with the leaders,…
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