Oregon’s Ariana Washington expected to run three races in Saturday’s Pepsi Invitational, but only two of them were familiar. She was comfortable running the 200-meter dash and 4×100 relay, but hadn’t run a 100-meter dash since her prep career at Long Beach Polytechnic in California. Naturally, Washington felt pre-race jitters.
“Nerves were running high,” Washington said.
USC’s Tynia Gaither jumped out to an early lead in the race, but Washington remained calm. With 30 meters left, she made her move.
“When I hit about 70 [meters], I was like, ‘OK, I can stay patient and lift,’” Washington said. “I knew that the best part of my race was that last 30 meters.”
Gaining ground in the latter half of the race, Washington surmounted just enough to finish in 11.34 seconds, while Gaither finished in 11.37. Both sprinters broke the Pepsi Invitational women’s 100 dash record of 11.41, set by Oregon’s Amber Purvis in 2009.
“[I] didn’t panic,” Washington said. “That’s one thing I learned about my redshirting, is to really stay patient and not let my confidence get the best of me.”
Washington competed against a much more experienced Gaither, an All-American redshirt senior and USC’s longest tenured women’s sprinter. Washington felt Gaither closing in on her after grabbing the lead, and knew leaning would likely make the difference at the finish.
“I had to make sure I lean because if I don’t [Gaither] is going to get me,” Washington said.
Behind Washington’s first place finish, which gave the Oregon women nine points, Deajah Stevens finished third in 11.53 seconds and Danielle Barbian placed fifth in 11.57.
Less than an hour prior to the 100-meter dash, both Washington and Stevens were part of the women’s 4×100 relay team that broke the all-time school record. Along with Jasmine Todd and Hannah Cunliffe, Oregon’s ‘A’ team finished in 42.88 seconds, dethroning the 43.27 mark set in 2010.
Washington ran the anchor leg as a warm up for the 100 meter dash, and was surprised to see they broke the record.
“We kind of trained through this meet, so I was confident that we would run 42, but I didn’t think we would run as fast as we did,” Washington said.
