SEATTLE, Wash. – Led by a pair of historic performances in the distance medley relay event, the Western Washington University Track & Field program got off to a solid start at the UW Invitational Friday at Dempsey Indoor.
 
The Vikings men's DMR shattered the school record and ran the sixth-fastest time in Great Northwest Athletic Conference history in a time of 9:45.48. The foursome of Will Henry (1200m), Brian Le (400m), Jonah Bloom (800m) and Drew Weber (1600m) broke the old school record of 9:50.83 set last year. WWU placed second in the event trailing only the University of Oregon (9:43.27) and placing ahead of GNAC foe Western Oregon (9:46.23).
 
Not to be outdone, the women's DMR recorded the second-fastest time in program history in a time of 11:47.47 to place fifth as the top non Division I team. Sophie Wright (1200m), Caitlyn Cheney (400m), Mia Crocker (800m) and Ila Davis (1600m) will now look to chase down the school record mark of 11:46.27 set in 2010.
 
Coming off a strong cross country season that resulted in the GNAC title, a second-place finish in the West Region and 14th place at nationals, the Viking men's distance crew continued its early-season success with four program top-10 times achieved in the 5000m. Andrew Oslin ran a personal-best 14:29.35 to rank third in WWU indoor history and 10th in GNAC history. Oslin finished 11th out of 33 competitors at the UW Invite. George Karamitsos (No. 4, 14:31.51) and Ryan Clough (No. 5, 14:31.75) also recorded top-5 program times and Jeret Gillingham moved into the top 10 in 14:41.50 (No. 10).
 
WWU's heavy throwers were led by a pair of top-10 performances in the men's weight throw. Miller Campbell won the competition with a toss of 17.26m/56-7.50 to move up one spot to No. 4 in the WWU indoor record book. Angelo Ramos remained at No. 7 in WWU history with a throw of 15.38m/50-5.50.
 
Matty Lagerwey ran a personal-best time of 9.19 in the 60m hurdles to rank sixth in program history, placing 16th out of 32 competitors. 
 
Sean Martelles qualified for the finals in the men's 60m hurdles with a prelim time of 9.13 and placed seventh overall. Nolan Mickenhamjust missed a program top-10 time in the 200m clocking 22.38 to place ninth out of 27 runners.
 
The Vikings wrap up competition at the two-day UW Invitational Saturday at Dempsey Indoor with track events beginning at 8:30 am and field events at 10 am. Live results can be followed online at wwuvikings.com/TF_Live.
 
The complete 2023 WWU Track & Field schedule and meet results can be viewed online at wwuvikings.com/TF.