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Blankenship, Markovc Get Wheels Turning At Washington Indoor Preview

Published by
DyeStat.com   Jan 16th 2022, 5:48am
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Blankenship Rips Through 3,000 In Meet Record Time; Oregon Prep Tyrone Gorze Cruises To 8:11.38

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

Viewed as a rust-buster meet for many Saturday, the University of Washington Indoor Preview turned into a record-breaking and speedy start to the indoor track schedule. Pacific Northwest universities and colleges, along with professional track and field athletes, ascended at Dempsey Indoor in Seattle to kick off the 2022 season. 

In one of many highlights of the day, the men’s 3,000-meter race saw Oregon Track Club Elite’s Ben Blakenship pull off the victory in a meet-record 7 minutes, 45.92 seconds. He broke Matt Centrowitz’s record of 7:49.89 set in 2017. In a close race, Sam Prakel of adidas was second (7:46.06). 

MEET VIDEOS | RESULTS

“I came off cross country seven days ago and wanted to come in here and do something on the track, and kind of reintroduce myself, and kind of see where I was on the track,” Blakenship said. 

In the same race, Aidan Ryan of Williams produced the fastest 3,000 performance in Division 3 history on any indoor surface, placing ninth in 7:55.29. No Division 3 athlete had ever achieved a sub-8 effort on an oversized track and Ryan ran faster than the 1994 all-time mark of 7:59.23 run on a banked track by Dan Mayer of North Central. 

High school junior Tyrone Gorze of Crater High in Oregon, who finished in sixth place Dec. 11 at the Eastbay National Cross Country Championships, was the only prep in the field. He clocked 8:11.38 to surpass Galen Rupp's 2003 time of 8:12.30 as the best indoor performance in state history.

“I was hoping to get as close to 8:05 as possible,” he said. “It was definitely a lot of adjustments to this. I feel like I can do better. It definitely was intimidating because I was the only high schooler out there, (but) after the gun went off, it was just like a normal race.”

The men’s mile featured five runners under the four-minute mark, with Washington’s Kieran Lumb winning in 3:55.53. 

In the men’s 800, unattached Western Oregon graduate Derek Holdsworth, running in a Chicago Bulls Dennis Rodman jersey, ran away from the field to capture the win in a meet-record 1:48.85. Holdsworth’s time beat the meet record of 1:49.10 set in 2008 by Raphael Asafo-Agyei

“I’m pretty happy. That’s the fastest indoor 800 I’ve ever run this early,” Holdsworth said.

In the women’s 3,000, Oiselle’s Rebecca Mehra, who also paced the women’s mile later in the meet, won in 9:09.64. 

“I felt really smooth, really good,” said Mehra, who will race at the 114th Millrose Games next month. “I think I have another 15 seconds in me to run faster.”

Second place went to Portland’s Veerle Bakker in 9:14.06, while Washington’s Allie Schadler was third (9:14.45).

In the women’s mile, University of Washington graduate and Reebok professional runner Amy-Eloise Markovc, won in 4:30.78. Markovc competed in the Olympics last summer for her native Great Britain in the 5,000. 

“The main goal today was just to get used to hurting again,” she said “I was hoping off the workouts that I’ve done that I was kind of in 4:30-4:32 for an opener, and I was right in there, so I’m really happy with that. I’m a little surprised that it went as well as it did, I'm not known for the best rust-busters.”

Running unattached, Molly Sughroue was runner-up (4:31.54). In total, eight runners ran under 4:40. 

“Coming into today I just wanted to treat it like a really hard practice,” said Simon Fraser graduate (British Columbia) Addy Townsend, who finished in fourth place in 4:32.41. “I took it out as best as I could, and I’m really, really happy with the time, and it's something to work off of as an opener.”

This meet, for many, was a gauge of where they are at with a goal of the Outdoor World Athletics Championships this July.

“All roads lead to Eugene this year,” Blakenship said.



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