June 11, 2012
SEATTLE - Katie Flood of the women's track and field team has been named the GoHuskies.com Student-Athlete of the Week for the week of June 4-10. This is the final award of the season. Flood claimed the NCAA Championship at 1,500-meters in her hometown of Des Moines on a track where she dominated as a prep. \ The Washington women eighth in the final team standings, the best finish ever in team history. The 23 point total was the third-highest in school history, behind a 26 point total in 1988 and 24 points in 1983. Flood attended Dowling Catholic High School, just a few miles away from the stadium, and piled up six Iowa state track titles and six Drake Relays junior titles on the same track. Last year as a collegiate freshman, Flood made it back home to Iowa but was out in the semifinals. One year later, she captures the first outdoor NCAA title for a Washington woman since 2006, running 4:13.79 to hold off a supremely talented field. Amy Lia was Washington's last outdoor champ, also winning the 1,500-meter title in 2006. Regina Joyce is UW's only other national champ in a running event, as she won the 3,000-meters in 1981. It's now the second NCAA championship for Flood, as she anchored Washington's distance medley relay to the program's first ever indoor championship this past March. She becomes the first Husky woman with multiple NCAA titles, let alone two in one year. The blue track was as hot as it's been all week when the gun went off at around 11:25 local time. Coming around at the end of the first lap, Flood looked a little concerned as she was stuck on the inside and eventually moved back to last place in order to get around to the outside. She then moved up on the backstretch and got back up into the top-five with two laps to go. As the bell rang for the final lap, Flood was running in lane two in fourth-place. Amanda Winslow of Florida State made an early push up front and opened up a lead of at least five meters. Flood moved up to second and started to give serious chase with a little over 200-meters left. The chase pack, led by Flood, caught Winslow and Flood took the lead. With 100 meters to go, it was Flood's race to win, if she possessed the stamina to hold the pace to the line, but staring down the homestretch that she had won on so many times before, with the crowd on its feet, Flood was not going to be caught. She crossed first to a huge ovation and doubled over with a huge smile to catch her breath and soak in the accomplishment. Heading off the track, Flood gave some high-fives to the crowd, stopped to sign an autograph, and then met and hugged her father, Steve. Other nominees include: J.J. Juilfs (men's track and field).
GoHuskies.com Student-Athletes Of The Week: |
