Oregon's Micah Williams Zips Through 60 Meters In 6.48 Seconds

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

SPOKANE -- First, Micah Williams annointed the deep purrple straightaway at The Podium by ripping through 60 meters in 6.48 seconds. 

Then, he gave it his blessing. 

"The track is fast," said Williams, an Oregon sophomore and reigning NCAA Indoor champion.

"It's like Hayward. They build these tracks pretty nice. Just moving forward, these tracks need to be built. If anyone from across the nation (wanted my) recommedation, I'd say 'Come. It's a good track.'

"Especially out here in the West, there's not really much out here (for indoors). So the fact that they built this is amazing."

MEET VIDEOS | RESULTS | INTERVIEWS | PHOTOS by Ken Martinez

The Podium's newness and novelty is still being absorbed. This weekend, the two-day collegiate meet, Washington State's Cougar Classic, preceded Sunday's first high school meet. 

Most of Saturday's finals resulted in a building record. Williams' performance, is the one most likely to survive the building's first winter season. 

Williams came in with a personal-best 6.49 from last year's NCAA Division 1 Indoor final in Fayetteville, Ark. 

The collegiate record of 6.45 by Terrence Jones, Christian Coleman and Leonard Myles-Mills is not far away. 

Oregon's other NCAA sprint champion, Kemba Nelson, won the women's 60 in 7.19 seconds, edging out Destiny Smith-Barnett of Double Pillar Athletics by .005 seconds. 

Emmanuel Ihemeje, Oregon's triple jump champion, won the long jump with 23-10.75 off a short approach. 

"This is a great facility," Ihemeje said. "I really like the track and it's bouncy for jumps."

The $53 million facility was constructed during the pandemic and contains all the bells and whistles to be considered one of the premier venues for indoor track in the U.S. 

After opening in December, new sets of athletes will cycle through and check it out. 

"I really love having it (in Spokane)," said Gonzaga's Alicia Anderson after winning the women's mile in 4:54.63. "We don't really have a track at the school, and when it's snowing outside, it's like (running on) treadmills, so it's really nice to come to this facility and get solid workouts."

Washington State's Sam Brixey, who was a couple spots out from making the NCAA Indoor final in the 60-meter hurdles, won that event on Saturday in 7.83 seconds, edging out training partner Nick Johnson. 

Brixey has been able to practice at The Podium a couple of times and it feels like an added advantage as he looks ahead to trying to make the national finals in March. 

"It's awesome. They made this place perfectly. I really like it," Brixey said. "Having this (place) for the Pac-12 and the West coast will help us do better to train for nationals."

UCLA's Myles Misener-Daley, running in his first indoor meet in four years, won the men's 400 meters in 47.54 seconds, stripping nearly a second off the track record.

Oregon's sprinters continued to shine in the 200 meters. Iman Brown won the women's 200 in 23.65 to lead three Ducks under 24 seconds. 

Rieker Daniel won the men's 200 in 21.22 seconds. 

Boise State's MaLeigha Menegatti took the women's 800 in 2:07.50 and Idaho's Lorenz Herrmann won the men's race in 1:52.25.