Rusnak Wins Pac-12 Heptathlon Championship

Sunday, May 5

Tucson, AZ

All Day

University of Washington

Pac-12 Multi-Events Championships

May 05, 2019 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

2019 Pac-12 Multi-Event Championships
May 4-5 | Tucson, Ariz. | Roy P. Drachman Stadium

Complete Results

TUCSON, Ariz. – Washington sophomore Hannah Rusnak can lay claim to being the Pac-12's top all-around athlete, as she rolled to the victory today in the heptathlon at the Pac-12 Multi-Event Championships hosted by the University of Arizona. Rusnak held a slim lead after day one but posted personal-bests in all three remaining events today to clinch the first Pac-12 heptathlon title by a Husky since 1992.

Held one week prior to the rest of the conference Track & Field Championships, the multi-events dole out points for the team scores in the same fashion as every other individual event, with Rusnak's 10 team points for first giving the Husky women's team a leg up going into next weekend.

The Huskies also got a big effort in the men's decathlon from Parker Kennedy, as he finished fourth overall with 6,872 points to score five team points for the men. Junior Elinor Jones Toutant also finished 14th in the heptathlon today with 4,574 points.

She can do it all!

S/O to @UWTrack super sophomore Hannah Rusnak for bringing home the program's first #Pac12TF heptathlon title in 27 years. ????????? pic.twitter.com/nGWskFKrsu
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) May 6, 2019

Sonja Forster won the one and only Pac-12 heptathlon title for the Huskies in 1992, and since then no Husky had finished higher than fourth in the event.

"I don't know if it's really hit me yet, it's kind of just starting to sink in and it's really an amazing feeling," Rusnak said. "I couldn't ask for a better support system. My family flew out and my brother surprised me, I didn't know he was coming. Obviously my coach (Toby Stevenson) is so proud of me, he's pushed me through this whole year and training for this moment and onward."

Stevenson was pleased with all three Dawgs this weekend.

"I'm proud of the whole group," said Associate Head Coach Toby Stevenson. "They all did great. Eli did the best she could and competed hard. Parker did exactly what he needed to do. He PR'd in many events and scored points at Pac-12s. It's important to get points on the board this weekend because it really gives the team a lot of momentum heading into next weekend."

"Hannah obviously did great," said Stevenson. "We came in with very little expectations of course. We did one jump, one attempt, one race at a time. She did wonderful, she competed her heart out, she was focused and ready to become the Pac-12 Champion.

At the start of the year I told her I'm crazy and I need her to be crazy and just hang on and we're going to get results. She has been a pleasure to work with."

A native of Lynden, Wash., Rusnak first crushed the UW school record in her previous multi-event competition at the Bryan Clay Invite on Apr. 17-18, but after Saturday's first four events she was ahead of the record pace she set last month. Three more PRs today helped her break her school record once again, as she finished with 5,762 points this weekend, over a hundred points better than her previous best. Rusnak has locked up a bid to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, as her new PR moved her up to No. 4 in the NCAA thus far in 2019.

Colorado senior Maja Wichhart-Donzo finished second with 5,600 points and UCLA junior Christina Chenault was third with 5,556.

In the first event today, Rusnak won the long jump to extend her lead, flying 19-feet, 9-inches on her second attempt. Heading to the javelin, she added five feet to her career-best with a toss of 141-2 that was second-best overall but extended her lead over her closest competitors. Going to the final 800-meters, Rusnak knew she just had to keep the gap between her and the Buff and Bruin from getting too big, as the competitors had faster 800-meter times. Rusnak was 10th overall in the final race, but still set a personal-best of 2:24.93, to easily secure the title.

"Really I just wanted to come in and take every event one at a time, and not worry about anything besides that event that I was in," said Rusnak, who said opening with a PR in the long jump was big. "Long jump was something that in the beginning (of the season) I was struggling with. The past few meets it started to click, and today I was able to get one pretty good jump and connect things together."

The final two laps around the track were not a walk in the park, but Rusnak knew what she had to do. "It was awful," she says. "The 800 is my weak event and I knew I had to run a really tough race. I knew the girls in second and third were really going to push me and they were awesome 800 runners. So I had to really kick and stay confident in myself and push all the way through."

In just one year's time, Rusnak went from 10th to 1st at the Pac-12 Championships, adding over 800 points to her score, or basically an entire quality event's worth. Last season she scored 4,934 points which set the UW freshman record, but one year later she set the school record for the second time with her 5,762 point total.

The Rusnak clan wouldn't miss this chance to root on their champ!@UWTrack's newest #Pac12TF title holder got an extra boost from her family (including a surprise visit from her brother) this weekend in Tucson. ?????? #BackThePac pic.twitter.com/1yoQkBNf19
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) May 6, 2019

Jones Toutant got her day going in the long jump with an 11th-place finish at 17-1 1/2. She then was 10th in the javelin with a best of 108-6, and capped off her two days with a 2:32.73 time in the 800-meters, for a final tally of 4,574 points, good for 14th overall in just her second career heptathlon.

Kennedy, the sophomore from Hood River, Ore., raised his decathlon PR by 266 points from his first effort just last month in Azusa, Calif. He started his second day with a wind-aided personal-best in the 110m hurdles of 16.16 seconds, and then added over twenty feet to his discus PR with a toss of 115-3.

In the pole vault, Kennedy was second overall and set a new outdoor PR of 15-feet, 9-inches to add 849 big points to his total. He had another big PR in the javelin, throwing 167-5, a best by 14 feet. Kennedy then closed out by taking second overall in the 1,500-meter run in another PR of 4:42.32.

Kennedy is the highest finisher in the Pac-12 decathlon for the Dawgs since Jeremy Taiwo was the runner-up in 2013.