BYU Women Fastest Ever Indoors By Six Seconds; Washington Men Run World Best In DMR Action At Husky Classic

Story and Photos by Keenan Gray of DyeStat

INTERVIEWS

SEATTLE – Mile City has stepped up its game. It’s now home to the world’s fastest distance medley relay team. 

The University of Washington men’s team collectively ran a world best by running 9 minutes, 14.10 seconds as part of its distance medley relay qualifier for the NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday afternoon at the Husky Classic at the Dempsey Indoor Facility.

The line-up of Ronan McMahon-Staggs, Ambodai Ligons, Kyle Reinheimer and Nathan Green bettered the previous world best, regardless of indoor and outdoor, of 9:14.58 set by the Brooks Beasts team of Brannon Kidder, Brandon Miller, Isaiah Harris and Henry Wynne at the 2024 Oregon Relays. 

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“This team just really wants it,” Green said. “They just want it more than any other team that I’ve been a part of.”

McMahon-Staggs led off the 1,200 meter leg in 2:50, followed by Ligons running 46 seconds on the 400, Reinheimer splitting 1:46 for the 800 and Green closing the 1,600 in 3:50. 

The Huskies matched up with both California and Stanford but were ultimately set up to run a fast time by five other Washington teammates. Rhys Hammond and Cole Lindhorst began the pacing duties on the 1,200 meter leg, followed by Jonathan Frazier on the 400, Justin O'Toole on the 800 and Thomas Diamond the final 1,600 leg.

Diamond stepped off the track with under 400 meters to go to let Green finish solo and lead the Huskies to both a collegiate and world best.

"This team is here for each other," Green said. "It couldn't have been done without them. We're four guys, but this was a nine-man effort. That's the difference between those teams and this team is that we have more guys who are willing to put themselves in really, really hard positions."

California finished second ahead of rival Stanford by over a half-a-second in 9:32.81 to 9:33.38.

The previous collegiate best belong to Oklahoma State when the Cowboys ran 9:16.40 at the Arkansas Qualifier in 2023, with Fouad Messaoudi, DeJuana McArthur, Hafez Mahadi and Ryan Schoppe on the team. Washington entered Friday’s race with the second-fastest time in collegiate history at 9:16.65, which was run in the same race with Oklahoma State.

BYU, the reigning NCAA women’s distance medley relay champions, also ran into the record books, but had their work cut out for with four other schools.

Led by Carmen Alder, Meghan Hunter, Tessa Buswell and Riley Chamberlain, BYU came from behind on the 1,600 leg to shatter Washington’s collegiate best time of 10:43.39 by almost six seconds, running 10:37.58 to beat Stanford, Northern Arizona, Washington and Utah, who also ran under the collegiate best.

“It was just fun to get together with all the other amazing teams in the NCAA and put together a good meet and qualify ourselves again for this next year,” Chamberlain said.

Alder split 3:16 on the opening 1,200 leg, Hunter clocked 52 seconds on the 400, Buswell ran 2:04 for 800 and Chamberlain finished with a 4:24 on the 1,600.

BYU trailed by as much as fifth place on the anchor leg and by as much as 30 meters to Stanford when Amy Bunnage got the baton first for the Cardinal.

Bunnage ran solo till 300 meters to go when Chamberlain and NAU's Maggi Congdon both caught the Stanford sophomore on the back stretch of the last lap. Chamberlain flew right by into the lead, creating enough separation between her and the chase group in the final 200 meters.

"I was feeling good and maybe I could catch her, but I wanted to wait for coach (Taylor) to tell me," Chamberlain said. "With about 400, 500 to go, she was like, 'okay, let's get moving,' and so I felt good the last lap."

Chamberlain is the only returning participant from BYU’s national champion team from a year ago when she, Sadie Sargent, Sami Oblad and Carlee Hansen ran 10:51.42 at the TRACK at New Balance in Boston on March 8, 2024.

Stanford, featuring Juliette Whittaker, Cate Peters, Roisin Willis and Bunnage, finished second to BYU in 10:38.93 for the second-fastest performance in NCAA history.

Rounding out the top five all-time collegiate performances was NAU, led by Agnes McTighe, Kyairra Reigh, Alex Carlson and Congdon, in 10:39.44 for third, Washington, led by Chloe Foerster, Anna Terrell, Claire Yerby and Amina Maatoug, in 10:40.44 for fourth and Utah, led by Brianna Rinn, Emily Martin, Kyla Martin and Erin Vringer, in 10:42.56 for fifth.