PORTLAND, Ore. — Three school records bit the dust as Pacific athletes took advantage of what might be the world's fastest indoor track on Friday night at the TrackTown USA High Performance Meet in the Pearl District.
The event, the first of a half dozen meets to be held at the House of Track in the coming weeks, featured the Boxers, a batch of talented post-collegians and a handful of University of Portland distance runners.
Pacific's
Stephenie Spencer,
Jess Knoll and
Marlee Chovich took advantage of the fast conditions and competitors to re-write parts of the Boxer Indoor Record Book.
Spencer set a new Pacific record in the 3,000 meters, clocking 10:40.03 on the green banked track, smashing the previous mark of 10:57.64 established by Lisa Martin in 2014. Knoll ran the 800 meters in 2:22.71, also squashing the previous time of 2:29.09 set by
Elaina Gillespie in 2014.
Chovich capped the record breaking night with a sprint of 8.38 in the 60 meters, topping the previous best by a micro second — 8.39 by
Mikaela Bernards last winter.
Three of America's top runners also got their first experience on the track tonight, the same one that will host the USA and World indoor track championships in Portland in March. Jordan Hasay, Shannon Rowbury and Matt Centrowitz, all running for the Nike Oregon Project, highlighted the field. Hasay, a two-time NCAA champ at Oregon, won the mile in 4:49.88. Rowbury, a two-time Olympian and the American record holder in the 1,500 meters, won the 3,000 meters tonight in 8:53.52. Centrowitz, a 2012 Olympian, won the men's 3,000 in 7:55.12.
Next indoor action for the Boxers will be on Feb. 5-6 in Pullman at the WSU Cougar Indoor.