Mason Wins Discus Title, Dawgs Finish Top-Five

Sunday, May 12

Tucson, AZ

5:30 PM

University of Washington

Pac-12 Championships

May 12, 2019 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

2019 Pac-12 Track & Field Championships
Saturday-Sunday, May 11-12
Tucson, Ariz. | Roy P. Drachman Stadium

Complete Results

TUCSON, Ariz. – Redshirt freshman Elijah Mason became the first Husky to win the Pac-12 men's discus crown in over four decades, and both Husky squads finished in the top-five for only the third time in history as the Pac-12 Championships wrapped up today at the University of Arizona. Both Washington teams more than doubled their point totals from 2018 under first year coaches Maurica and Andy Powell.

The Husky men's squad earned a fourth-place finish tonight with 85 points, zooming past the 42 points the team scored one year ago in Stanford. The women came in fifth scoring 73.5 points, jumping back up into the top half of the conference after scoring just 32 points last season. The only prior years that both the men and women were top-five at the conference meet were in 2016 and 1996.

From here the Huskies will learn their qualifiers for the NCAA West Preliminary Championships and take that group on down to Sacramento where bids for the NCAA Outdoor Championships will be determined from May 23-25.

In addition to Mason's win, the Huskies had third-place podium finishes from Annika Dayton in the women's pole vault and Jaylen Taylor in the men's triple jump. All told, the Huskies had three wins from Mason, Izzi Batt-Doyle in the women's 10k last night, and Hannah Rusnak in the heptathlon last weekend. Washington had a total of seven podium finishers this year up from just two a year ago.

Mason, the native of Casa Grande, Ariz. competing back in his home state, won in dramatic fashion today, going into the lead on his final attempt and the second-to-last throw of the competition. He had to sweat out one final competitor's last throw, but when that came up short, Mason had become the first Dawg since Borys Chambul in 1976 to win the men's discus, and just the third all time.

It was a heck of a way to start off a Pac-12 career for Mason, who did come in as the top seed with a season-best toss of 199-feet, but had to outduel more experienced throwers and come up clutch with the pressure on. Mason had been leading after round five when he threw 187-8, but UCLA's Dotun Ogundeji went 188-9 in the sixth round. Mason found two more feet on his last throw, going 189-6 to take the title.

?? Here's the winning toss from Elijah!! ??

?? >> Pac-12 Network#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/k5aYE6L329
— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) May 13, 2019

Sophomore Jonah Wilson was right in the mix as well, as he had a breakthrough discus series with four PRs, the last one going 186-9, which put him fourth in the very tight battle at the top. Mason and Wilson's 15 combined points made that the big event of the day for UW. Junior Jose Padilla also threw 166-2 to finish 11th.

In the men's triple jump, the sophomore Taylor had a big fifth-round jump of 49-feet, 1-inch to move up to secure third-place, as he scored for the second straight season for the Dawgs.

Dayton took third in the women's pole vault, moving up from fifth-place last year, as she cleared 13-4 1/2 today. Also scoring for the first time was sophomore Makenna Barton who tied for seventh at 12-10 3/4.

On the track, the women's 4x100m relay got the first points with a seventh-place finish, outperforming their seed mark by a couple spots. Running out of lane one, Jelani Heath, Sarah Stavig, Imani Apostol, and Olivia Ribera passed it around in 46.15 seconds to earn a couple team points.

Moving on to the 1,500-meters, the women had three in the finals and all finished top-10, with Katie Rainsberger and Allie Schadler finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, in times of 4:18.39 and 4:18.84. Senior Anna Maxwell just missed a point in her final Pac-12s as she was ninth in 4:23.95.

Rainsberger and Schadler would both be back late in the meet to run the 5k, with Rainsberger gritting out a fifth-place finish in 16:07.43 to add four more points, giving her nine for the day. Schadler was 10th in 16:21.55 with Emily Hamlin, the steeplechase runner-up, taking 11th in 16:22.47.

The men's 1,500-meters got derailed when Mick Stanovsek was tripped and fell on the inside on the third lap. He got up and still finished strong but couldn't quite grab a point, ending up ninth in 3:54.76. Redshirt freshman Isaac Green was 12th in his first Pac-12 meet.

Rusnak the heptathlon champ padded her point total in the 100-meter hurdles final, as she took sixth overall in a time of 13.65 to add three more points to the 10 she posted last week.

Next to score was Evan Mafilas in his first conference 400-meter final. The sophomore finished eighth for one point, running 47.06.

For the second year in a row, Connor Morello and Devan Kirk both scored in the 800-meters final for the men. After a sixth-place and an eighth-place the past two years, Morello got up to fourth-place today in 1:50.37. Kirk finished sixth for the second straight season, crossing in 1:50.74.

As the 800-meters were timed finals thanks to Saturday's storm delays, senior Hannah Derby went out hard looking to win her heat and post a time that could hold up through the fastest section, but she couldn't quite close out the aggressive approach and wound up 12th overall in her final Pac-12s in 2:08.36. Nicole Goecke was 15th in 2:08.79 and freshman Kelly Makin was 16th in 2:09.47.

Freshman Cass Elliott had one of the big performances of the day, as he cut seven-tenths of a second off his PR to run 50.38 in the 400-meter hurdles final and finish in fourth-place for five points tonight. Elliott also climbed to No. 4 in school history with the new PR.

Freshman Cass Elliott with a tremendous run in the 400m hurdle finals! He lowers his PR to 50.38, the #?4? time in school history and he takes 4th for ??? points for the Dawgs!#GoHuskies // #Pac12TF pic.twitter.com/D0CKKvvMWn
— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) May 13, 2019

Junior Darhian Mills matched Elliott with her 400m hurdles finish with a big PR of her own. Mills broke 58 seconds for the first time, getting all the way down to 57.69 as she also moved up to No. 4 in school history and also finished in fourth-place today. Senior Carly Lester was just .08 seconds out of scoring as she was ninth in 59.48 seconds and Morganne Hill was 11th in 60.12.

Sophomore Kemuel Santana got his first career Pac-12 points tonight in the 200-meter dash, as Santana clocked a new PR of 21.05 to finish seventh overall, while Mafilas just missed scoring in a second event, as he came in ninth in 21.11.

Finishing things on the track were the 4x400m relays, where the Huskies ran big season-bests on both sides to close out strong. The men won their heat by a hundredth of a second over Cal, as Elliott, Jason Palmer, Santana, and Mafilas ran 3:09.22 which wound up earning them fourth-place overall.

The women's 4x4 also won its heat, with senior Imani Apostol in likely her final race making the pass on Arizona State on the anchor leg and crossing in 3:40.16. Lester, Sarah Stavig, and Mills were the first three legs. That time wound up in sixth overall and was a three second season-best.

Back in the field, the Huskies got seven points out of the men's pole vault, two coming from senior Blaise Black who was under the gun right away, as he had two misses last night and was up when the meet was suspended. Black had one more try to make 16-1 3/4 and he did that, then made 16-5 1/2 to finish seventh-place. Junior Chase Smith did not enter until 16-11 1/2, and he went to a third attempt before making that one. Smith next attempted 17-3 1/2, missing his first two, but unfortunately he couldn't get the third attempt make for a second time and he wound up in fourth-place.

Junior Angel Nkwonta picked up the first Pac-12 points of her career as she took seventh in the shot put. Nkwonta was on the outside of the finals going into her third attempt and needed a big improvement, and she got it to stay alive, going 49-1 1/2 to jump up to fifth. Nkwonta would get bumped down a couple spots in the final standings but still posted two points for the Dawgs.

The final field event points came from redshirt freshman Ginny Mehl, who made it into the discus final and wound up finishing seventh today with a best on her first attempt of 160-11.

The first events of the day were the women's hammer throw and women's long jumps. Senior Onyie Chibuogwu did not get the final Pac-12 meet she would have hoped for, as she could not find her groove and did not make the final, finishing 11th, just ahead of Nkwonta who was 12th in the hammer before scoring later in the shot put. Hannah Rusnak's long jump best from the heptathlon last week would have scored but today she had a best of just 19-0 3/4 to finish 12th. Sophomore Jelani Heath was 16th at 18-9 1/4.