Washington's prize frosh duo of Megan Goethals & Katie Flood qualify for NCAAs...

EUGENE--The investment in freshmen Megan Goethals (left/photo by Randy Miyazaki, trackandfieldphoto.com) and Katie Flood paid dividends for the University of Washington track team as both women qualified for the NCAA championships Saturday at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon with strong outings at the NCAA West preliminary round.

Goethals, last year's number one ranked prep distance runner out of Rochester, Michigan, won heat one of the women's 5000 meters in a personal best of 16:02.64, just ahead of Pac-10 champ Jordan Hasay, who jogged it in in 16:04.39, after qualifying earlier in the meet in the 1500.

Flood, the Des Moines, Iowa native, had to turn on the afterburners in her heat of the 1500, running 4:23.44, to run down several athletes in the final 100 meters to get the fifth and final automatic qualifying spot and a trip home to the NCAA championships at Drake University, a track that she's familiar with during her prep career.

Washington's 4 x 100 meter relay team of Maurice McNeal, James Alaka, Colton Dunn and Ryan Hamilton advanced to the NCAA championships with a time of 40.29, as they finished second in heat 3, behind the Pac-10 champions from Washington State, who ran 40.26 with a squad of Greg Hornsby, Nate Washington, Brett Blanshan, and Marlon Murray.

Alaka, the Pac-10 champ at 100 and 200 meters, made up for a disappointing showing in Friday's 100 meters by qualifying for nationals in the 200, running 21.17, earning one of the three time qualifiers.

Among notable qualifiers from the state of Washington, Oregon's Becca Friday from Bellingham advanced to the nationals in the 1500, running 4:17.93 to win her heat; and, Sequim's Stephanie Marcy from Stanford advanced in her second event, finishing second in her section of the 5000m in 16:04.12.


Complete results from day 3 of the NCAA West Preliminary round are available here.

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