The fastest 3,000-meter times of the college indoor track season were posted by a pair of Alaska women on Saturday.
Allie Ostrander of Soldotna and Joyce Chelimo of UAA registered sizzling times at the Husky Invitational to establish the season's best times in their respective divisions and some of the best times ever recorded in indoor college track.
Ostrander, a freshman at Division I Boise State, ran the fastest women's time of the season by any college runner, topping a huge field at the Husky Invitational in 8 minutes, 54.28 seconds.
Chelimo, a senior from Kenya, ran the fastest time in Division II, a 9:17.97 that ranks among the top 15 this season in Division I. The time is the fastest recorded on an oversized track in Division II history and the second fastest overall in Division II history, according to a list maintained by U.S. Track and Field.
Runners competed in four heats on the 307-meter oval at the Dempsey Indoor Track Arena in Seattle. Ostrander and Chelimo both won their heats.
And both set school and conference records – Ostrander in the Mountain West Conference and Chelimo in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
Ostrander's time is the third fastest on an oversized track in the history of college indoor track. If track size didn't matter --most indoor ovals are 200 meters – it would be the eighth fastest in history, according to Boise State's sports information department.
Ostrander, a 2015 graduate of Kenai Central who is in the midst of a fabulous freshman season that included a runnerup finish at the NCAA cross country championships, now owns the season's fastest college times at two distances.
Two weeks ago on the Dempsey track – reputed to be one of the fastest in the country – she ran a jaw-dropping 15:21.85 in the 5,000 meters to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials. That time is 24 seconds faster than the second-best college time this season.