March 28, 2003

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Ashlee Vincent (So., Bellingham/Squalicum) broke a school record that had stood for 12 years in the women's 5,000 meters and Zach Boteilho (Sr., Camas) met the NCAA Division II national provisional qualifying standard in the men's 10,000 to lead six Western Washington University athletes competing at the 29th annual Stanford University Invitational Track and Field meet Friday at Cobb Track and Angell Field.

Vincent placed sixth in her heat with a time of 17:02.00. That was over 40 seconds better than her national provisional qualifying effort of two weeks ago, and bettered the school standard of 17:06.1 set by Lisa Waltenburg in 1991.

Vincent's best previous effort in the 5,000 was 17:33.21 last spring.

Boteilho was clocked in 31:03.55 as he placed 32nd among 45 runners in the 10,000. That was 17 seconds better than the national provisional qualifying standard. Running unattached last year, Boteilho won the 10,000 in 30:57.32 at the University of Oregon Invitational.

Western's Stacey Hopkins (Jr., Sammamish/Eastlake) had a mark of 133-3 in the women's javelin, 10 inches short of the provisional qualifying standard. Last year, Hopkins had a provisional mark of 139-2.

Dania Swosinski (Jr., Tacoma/Wilson) placed sixth and seventh, respectively, in her women's 200 (26.24) and 400 (59.58) heats, and Ryan Los (Jr., Gig Harbor/Peninsula) was seventh in his men's 400 hurdles heat (57.94).

The Vikings' Steve DeKoker (Sr., Maple Valley/Tahoma) finished 14th in the men's 5,000 with a personal best time of 14:58.73.

The Stanford meet is one of the largest in the country with several thousand collegiate and high school athletes competing.