University of Washington
Pac-12 Championships
Dawgs Charge To Day One Lead At Home Pac-12s
May 15, 2016 | Track & Field
Complete Day One Results | Live Results | Event Schedule
SEATTLE – The Husky track team basked in the Seattle showers and would not let a damp day at Husky Track dampen its enthusiasm for hosting the Pac-12 Championships for the first time in nearly twenty years. The Dawgs fired out of the blocks on day one with three individual titles, and the men's team scored in six of the seven finals today to take the lead with 61 points heading into Sunday's finale.
Hosting the meet for the first time since 1997, and the first time at the three-year-old Husky Track, Washington got plenty of hometown cooking to enjoy one of its best Pac-12 day ones ever. The last time UW hosted the Huskies came up empty on event wins, but this time around the Dawgs already got to the top of the podium three times.
Senior Aaron Nelson (Walla Walla, Wash.) started things off with a dramatic win in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, his second title after also winning in 2014. Another repeat winner, senior Jax Thoirs (Glasgow, Scotland), flew to the pole vault victory for the third year in a row, something no Husky has ever done despite UW's long vaulting legacy. Then junior Katie Knight of Spokane grabbed her first ever Pac-12 title and broke the meet record in the process, as she won the 10,000-meters in 33:20.02.
The Huskies hold a slim lead over the Oregon men, winners of eight Pac-12 team titles in a row. UW has 61 while the Ducks have 57, and UCLA has scored 45 for third. Oregon leads the women's race with 57 points, with UCLA second at 41 and Colorado third with 33, with the Huskies currently sixth with 23 points.
A total of fifteen Huskies finished in the top-eight of their events to score points today. In addition, the Huskies had seven men and seven women advance through for eight spots in Sunday's finals. Kennadi Bouyer (100m, 200m) and Izaic Yorks (800m, 1500m) both made two finals apiece.
"Today was just a fantastic day for our men and women," said Head Coach Greg Metcalf. "Every one of our young athletes that we paraded out there competed incredibly well. The purple track was good to us today. Katie Knight, to break the meet record at 10,000-meters, that was a classy, classy effort from her. Then Jax Thoirs, I don't think he has ever lost here, and to go out and close out his Pac-12 career with three in a row was phenomenal. In the steeple, Aaron and Andrew (Gardner), that was a herculean effort from both of them, and Aaron gets to win his last race here and set a big PR. Track really is a sport about momentum, leaving our team meeting our kids are excited and fired up for tomorrow."
The first event Sunday is the women's hammer at 9 a.m., with the women's triple jump and men's discus starting at 11:30 and the first track final going at 1 p.m.Setting the tone in the first event of the day was sophomore hammer thrower Carey Campbell. Ranked just 10th entering the competition, on his fifth round throw, Campbell got off a toss that landed 192-feet, 8-inches, a new PR by a couple feet. That got Campbell all the way up to fourth-place where he would finish, scoring five big points, his first at the conference level.
A huge effort also closed out the night for the men's team, as senior Tyler King turned in an inspired run in his final home race. Taking on the 10k, King gradually worked his way up to the front of the chase pack and was never out of the mix when it mattered. He kicked hard for home to finish third in 29:09.15, also scoring at Pac-12s for the first time.
King also credited the momentum of the team throughout the day. "It started off with Carey Campbell in the hammer this morning," he said. "I was checking the Twitter feed and saw that Carey's fourth, and you start the day off on that high of a note you get fired up. It felt like every event people were doing what they were supposed to be doing and gaining some points. It's just fun. I was just trying to add to the party, you know?"
"Coach Metcalf and I went back and thought about having success at West Regionals in the fall (in Seattle) and having success there after a bumpy fall, and we just talked about being home and I'm a Washington kid, so coming down the homestretch with 500 meters to go and it's so loud, it's just awesome."
In the women's field events, the Huskies picked up a couple early points and narrowly missed a couple more. Bouyer, before taking to the track in the sprints, placed eighth in the women's long jump with a best of 19-6 ¼. That tied for seventh, but she lost the tiebreaker on the next-best attempt rule. The same tiebreak worked against sophomore Gina Flint in the women's shot put. Flint threw a season's-best 50-2 ¾ on her second attempt, which tied for eighth, but the next-best mark favored USC's Tera Novy so Flint just missed the point. The Dawgs picked up another eighth-place point in the javelin as freshman Katherine Taylor got on the board with a best toss of 135-6.
Nelson had only run one steeple this season, winning at the UW-WSU Dual last month. He ranked much higher nationally and in the conference in the 10,000-meters, but chose to steeple again at conference, and try to capture the magic of his 2014 Pac-12 win. The Walla Walla native did that and more, as he passed 2015 champ and top-seed Connor Winter for the lead with a mile to go and didn't let off the gas. Close behind, sophomore Andrew Gardner had also moved up into the top-three. Nelson held off a late charge from Winter to take the title in a new PR of 8:39.58, and Gardner came through in fourth in a nine-second PR of 8:44.47.
"It was a great day, perfect in about every way," said Nelson. "The weather was good and I felt real strong with a little bit to go, so I started making a move for the win. I was a little worried that I went too early, sometimes that does not pay off, but it worked out today … I have been training for the 10K and 5K all year. We decided I would do the steeple about 3-4 weeks ago, so I picked up some steeple training, but you don't really forget, as it is muscle memory. I am fresh in that regard. I ran a clean race, and when I run a clean race in the steeple, it tends to go well for me."
Nelson jumped to No. 3 in school history with the time which is the fastest by a Dawg since Dan Bell's 1987 school record of 8:32.27. Nelson also moved ahead of his mentor Coach Metcalf on the list, who now ranks fifth overall. Gardner also broke onto the top-10 for the first time with his PR, all the way up to No. 8.
After Nelson's win, it was just a few minutes later that Thoirs sewed up his third-straight pole vault victory. Thoirs was on his game today, despite not owning the season's top mark coming in, he still operated as the favorite. He cleared his first five bars all without a miss, staying in the lead the entire way, and his make of 17-8 ½ could not be matched by Stanford's Dylan Duvio or Arizona's Pau Tonnesen. Thoirs had one run through at the next height but then passed and called it a day with the win in hand. Adding to the point total in the vault was senior Chris Williams and freshman Chase Smith, as both made 16-8 ¾, which was good for fourth for Williams and fifth for Smith, giving UW 19 points in the men's vault today.
"It's absolutely great to win at home," said Thoirs, who became just the third man in conference history to win three pole vault titles along with Brent Burns of Cal and Tommy Skipper of Oregon. "There is a little more pressure as it's the last home meet, so I am delighted to get the win in front of all these UW fans and alumni. I was a little more amped that these Pac-12 championships were at home, my adrenaline was going, this is by far the most excited I have been for an outdoor meet this year and I am glad I was able to jump well."
Picking up where Campbell left off in the morning were senior throwers Frank Catelli, Carson Fuller, and Quinn Hale, who all added to the point total.
Catelli connected for the best shot put of his career on his third attempt today, and a season-best by a full foot, as his throw hit at 61-feet, 6.75-inches. That mark for the Sequim, Wash. native is often good enough for the podium, but an extremely deep men's shot put field had seven men over 61-feet and Catelli would place sixth for three points, while he climbs to No. 7 on the Husky top-10 list.
Fuller and Hale both added to their big career point totals at Pac-12s in the javelin, as Fuller threw a best of 228-1 to take fourth and Hale was fifth at 222-4. Fellow senior Curtis Clauson couldn't find his groove and unfortunately missed the final by one spot, placing 10th at 189-4.
Last year at Pac-12s at UCLA, Knight stepped up to the 10k for the first time and finished 10th in 34:21.84. But with a strong fall and winter behind her, Knight was a very different runner this time around. She led for several kilometers during the middle of the race, with Oregon's Molly Grabill keeping right on her heels.
Grabill made a move and took the lead with less than two miles to go, but Knight didn't panic, and retook the lead with a mile left. She continued to push her pace and widened the lead, leaving little doubt that she was on her way to the win. The only question was if she would break the meet record in the process, and that was easily finished off as well, as her time of 33:20.02 was over eight seconds faster than the 2010 mark of 33:28.38 by Oregon's Nicole Blood. Knight won by over 20 seconds tonight.
Knight said the win meant a lot to her. "The transition from high school to college is hard, and I think people underestimate it sometimes. To come out here on my home track where I have put in the work, have had both good workouts and bad workouts, and to run the way I am capable of running means a lot to me."
Junior Kaylee Flanagan garnered three more points for the Dawgs in the 10k, as she finished sixth, up from 14th in the same race each of the past two years, in a time of 34:13.76.
Freshman Charlotte Prouse had a bit of an adventure in her first Pac-12 Championships. One of the top contenders in the steeplechase, Prouse was right in the thick of things up front, but mistimed her jump at the barrier in front of the water pit and collided with the barrier, dropping back in the pack but not giving up. In sixth-place with two laps to go and still fifth with 200-meters to go, Prouse passed two women down the homestretch to get back up into third and make the podium, with a time of 10:04.71, just a few seconds off her PR despite the mishap.
Among the many highlights in the preliminaries was UW putting a combined five men and women into the 1,500-meter finals, and all four of UW's high hurdlers advancing to their respective finals.
Defending Pac-12 Champ and NCAA leader Izaic Yorks ran in second-place for most of his 1,500m prelim, and calmly took second for the automatic finals spot in a still very quick time of 3:43.61. Sophomore Colby Gilbert would lead nearly all of his prelim, auto advancing as well out of the second head in 3:47.62.
On the women's side, sophomore Anna Maxwell and junior Maddie Meyers set the pace together at the front of their 1,500m prelim, and they finished second and third in 4:24.17 and 4:24.53 to advance without issue. Sophomore Amy-Eloise Neale joined them in the final out of the next prelim, which went several seconds faster. Neale actually got a PR out of her prelim, running 4:19.10 for the second-fastest overall time of the day.
Yorks would be back a second time today in the 800-meter prelims, and he advanced to Sunday's final there as well with a 1:48.79 time, third in his heat. He'll be joined in that final by 2014 800m champ Derrick Daigre, who showed his desire to get back in the final with a gritty push down the homestretch to get the final qualifying spot with a season-best time of 1:49.63.
In the women's hurdles, 2015 finalist Kimberly Stueckle came through with a runner-up heat finish to auto advance, as she ran an even 14.00 seconds. Senior Naivasha Sophusson Smith also advanced to her second straight final with a 13.84 second run, fifth-fastest on the day. On the men's side, senior Williams advanced to a fourth-straight 110m hurdles final with a prelim time of 14.34 seconds. Sophomore Eric Simpson also broke into his first final, making the cut by .01 seconds, with a time of 14.43, a wind-legal PR.
In the women's sprints, Kennadi Bouyer once again tossed away her old PRs, and made her first individual Pac-12 sprint finals while closing on another UW record. The indoor All-American got the victory in her 100-meter prelim with a wind-legal career-best 11.53 seconds. That moves her from fifth up to a tie for second on the Husky career top-10 with Donna Dennis' time from 1983. Later on in the evening, Bouyer also advanced in the 200-meters with a time of 23.89 seconds, another PR and fourth in school history.
Senior Quadelle Satterwhite earned his way into a second straight 200-meter Pac-12 final as he auto advanced out of his prelim with a time of 21.56 seconds. Freshman Ryan Croson made the most of his first Pac-12 appearance, as he smashed his old 400-meter PR, going under 48 seconds for the first time with a mark of 47.66 to get the eighth spot in tomorrow's final. Also advancing through was the Husky men's 4x100m relay, as Satterwhite, Jacopo Spanò, Williams, and Travis Marshall qualified fifth overall in 40.56 seconds. Marshall had a season-best 10.65 seconds in the 100m prelims, finishing 10th overall.
Last but not least among the Husky advancers to Sunday was senior Baylee Mires, who set the pace in her 800-meter heat, and then held off a brief challenge around the final turn to retake the lead and win her prelim in 2:05.97. Redshirt freshman Hannah Derby also ran a nice PR of 2:07.92 but did not advance.
Players Mentioned
