For the second straight day, two indoor school records fell as the Seattle University track and field team concluded its participation at the UW Invitational Saturday at Dempsey Indoor.
Miriam Mboya (Shoreline, Wash.) became the first female in Seattle U indoor track and field history to run the 60 meter dash in under eight seconds, posting a school-record time of 7.85 seconds to finish second in her heat and 16th overall in the preliminaries. Bethany Richards (Shoreline, Wash.) set the other school record of the day, posting a top effort of 11.83 meters (38' 9.75") in the women's weight throw, 2/10ths of a meter further than the previous mark.
Austin Thummel-Gravitt (Puyallup, Wash.) finished second in his heat and 12th overall in the men's 400 meter dash with a time of 49.75 seconds. In the men's 3000 meter run, Matthew McClement (Bellingham, Wash.) finished seventh in his section with a time of 8:34.09, while Erik Barkhaus (Whitefish Bay, Wis.) crossed the finish line in 4:20.02 in the one mile run, followed by Kelton Sears (Maple Valley, Wash.) in 4:20.50.
In the women's 3000 meter run, Sarah Bolce (Sacramento, Calif.) finished eighth in her section of the event with a time of 10:07.53, and Hannah Mittelstaedt (Maple Valley, Wash.) crossed the finish line seventh in her section of the women's one mile run with a time of 5:11.25. Elena Collins (Eugene, Ore.) posted a time of 59.97 seconds to finish third in her heat of the women's 400 meter dash.
In the field events, Katie Tougas (Edmonds, Wash.) tied for 15th overall in the women's long jump with a top leap of 5.28 meters (17' 4"), while Cali Cull (Marysville, Wash.) finished 22nd in both the long jump with a top effort of 5.04 meters (16' 6.5") and in the triple jump with a best leap of 10.83 meters (35' 6.5"). In the men's pole vault, Stephen Squatrito (Phoenix, Ariz.) cleared a height of 4.41 meters (14' 5.5") to finish in a tie for seventh place.
"There were a lot of great performances over the past two days," Seattle U head coach Trisha Steidl said. "We have a lot of people stepping things up and getting in good times and marks. It's still early in the season, which makes some of these performances all the more impressive. We've got one more meet before conference. I'm looking forward to seeing more people ready to go in two weeks and to punch their ticket to conference, but also to continue to improve on their performances."
The Seattle University track and field team returns to Dempsey Indoor in two weeks for the Husky Classic Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10-11, and the UW Open Sunday, Feb. 12.