Johnston turns in national best

Track and field: North Central senior Ben Johnston turned in the nation’s fastest time of the high school season in the 1,600 meters with a time of 4 minutes, 6.54 seconds at the Shoreline Invitational in Seattle on Saturday.

In addition, it makes Johnston the 10th-best individual in Washington prep history.

The state’s top mark of 4:00.1 is owned by Gerry Lindgren of Spokane’s Rogers HS. It is converted from his mile time of 4:01.5 he ran in 1964 in Jamaica.

Johnston’s mark is the 12th-best performance in Washington prep history.

Johnston helped North Central tie Skyline of Sammamish for the title.

“I couldn’t have done that without the great competition that was here today,” Johnston told the Seattle Times.

He outdueled front-running Kenny Krotzer of Auburn Riverside over the final two laps.

“I knew I needed to push it on the third lap and Krotzer took it out pretty fast,” Johnston said. “I knew I needed to put it on him then.

“I was really feeling it 200 meters out, but I’d come 1,400 meters and wasn’t going to lose the last 200.”

Krotzer finished second in 4:07.24.

Ferris’ Adam Thorne was third in 4:11.50.

WSU captures women’s D-II title

Rugby: The Washington State women’s rugby team defeated Temple University 37-0 in Palo Alto, Calif., to win the USA Rugby national collegiate Division II championship.

The WSU club team defeated Norwich 15-5 on Friday in the semifinals.

The team traveled to Sanford, Fla., earlier in the month to begin the nationals. They defeated Stonehill and Winona there to advance to this weekend’s final games.

WSU finished third in the national tournament last year.

On the Web: womensrugby.wsu.edu