SAN FRANCISCO — Santa Clara track & field runners Grayson Murphy and Mary Kriege have cracked several of the program's longer distance records this spring. The pair continued that record-breaking trend at a shorter distance by posting the fastest two 1500m times in Bronco history at Saturday's West Coast Last Chance Meet.
Murphy finished in first place with a 4:27.67 and Kriege took third with a 4:30.09. Murphy closed a seven-second gap in roughly 600 meters and took the lead with about 200 meters left in the race.
"Helen and her staff put together a really great meet during the conference championship weekend," head coach Felipe Montoro said. "We had a number of great performances. The women's 1500 highlighted the meet for us."
"Graysee and Mary should both advance to the NCAA prelims and this was their last opportunity to sharpen things up in a race situation," associate head coach Pete Cushman said. "They ran great races."
Heather LaPlante and Bevin McCullough also set new personal best marks at 1500m. Greer Chrisman notched her fastest time in the 400m hurdles. On the men's side, Brynn Sargent posted an 800m PR while Noah Westfall and Jack Prazich ran the fastest 1500m races of their Bronco careers.
"Brynn's season has been truly remarkable considering a very frustrating and injury plagued two-to-three years," Cushman said. "His entire season was consistent, and to run this two best races of his career during the last month of the season makes it all the better."
Saturday's event marked the last track & field competition for five seniors: Matt Burke, Bryan Crook, Allison Maio, Nicholas Mantovani and Elsa Valenzuela. Kriege, a redshirt senior, will continue her career into the postseason at the NCAA Preliminary Meet.
"I was really proud of how Allison Maio closed out her career with her second-best 5k," Montoro said. "The guys that ran the 5k worked together really well and we're competitive in their heat as well."
"Felipe and I are very pleased with the development of our positive team culture, and no doubt our graduating seniors played a very big role in helping us foster an environment of hard work, competitiveness, and family," Cushman said. "We are grateful for everything they did for this team, and excited to see what's up next for all of them."
FULL RESULTS
Men's 1500m: Jean-Baptiste Tooley 4:00.03, Ross Corey 4:00.81
Women's 1500m: Grayson Murphy 4:27.67 (PR + School Record), Mary Kriege 4:30.09 (PR), Heather LaPlante 4:43.49 (PR), Julia Wood 4:48.00, Bevin McCullough 4:56.79 (PR), Kaitlyn Kuehn 5:04.41, Marisa Rudolph 5:06.96, Allison Martinez 5:09.93, Christine Cremer 5:14.15, Camille Dyer 5:18.16
Women's 400m Hurdles: Greer Chrisman 1:07.74 (PR)
Men's 800m: Brynn Sargent 1:56.60 (PR), Nicholas Mantovani 1:59.50, Carson Bode 2:02.56
Women's 800m: Hannah Wood 2:19.54, Julia Wood 2:21.68, Karen Mac 2:28.03
Men's 5000m: Noah Westfall 15:24.40 (PR), Will Burschinger 15:37.13, Jack Prazich 15:37.49 (PR), Wilder Boyden 15:40.82, Matt Burke 15:45.51, Andrew Melendez 15:50.50, Evan Misuraca 15:59.17, John O'Hagan 16:02.55
Women's 5000m: Allison Maio 18:13.35, Elsa Valenzuela 18:54.31
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