Campbell Gets High Marks In Pole Vault Win

Friday, February 24

Seattle, WA

All Day

University of Washington

Ken Shannon Last Chance Invite

February 24, 2023 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

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SEATTLE – Nastassja Campbell's spot at the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks was essentially secure, but she went into today's Ken Shannon Last Chance Invitational looking to do more than just get a tune-up. Campbell, the Arkansas transfer, sailed over consecutive season-bests, ending with a make at 14-feet, 9-inches, the No. 3 mark in the NCAA this season and the No. 2 clearance in Husky history.

Campbell came to Washington as a two-time First Team All-American and SEC Champion, ranked 18th in NCAA history outdoors with her career-best of 14-10 ¾. But she was also coming back from an injury this season. This indoor season, Campbell has been consistently over 14-feet, coming in with a season-best of 14-2 ¾, but today she connected on a clearance of 14-5 ¼, and then on her first attempt at 14-9, she wobbled the bar but it stayed up.

Nastassja Campbell leaves it up there at 14-feet, 9-inches????

That puts her #?3? in the NCAA this season and #?2? in UW history!!#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/o7oscjcDEg
— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) February 25, 2023

That was a new indoor career-best for Campbell, and puts her second only behind Olivia Gruver in Husky vaulting history. It's less than two inches off the NCAA lead as well. Campbell took three jumps at 15-1, but didn't get it on this day.

Friday saw the first four events in the men's heptathlon, which is a key event this weekend for the Huskies, as Bruno Comin Pescador and Jami Schlueter battle for PRs and potential NCAA qualification. Comin Pescador came into the weekend ranked 16th nationally, with the top-16 advancing to NCAA Indoors. He'll need to improve his season-best score from earlier this month if he wants to make his first nationals, and he put himself in position to do just that on Friday.

Bruno Comin Pescador caps off an excellent first day in the heptathlon with a win in the high jump, clearing 6-8! ??

He pads his lead and has 3320 points going into Saturday!#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/2NFDbYNoBR
— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) February 25, 2023

Comin Pescador first won the opening 60-meter dash in 6.99 seconds, and then had a big long jump win of 23-10, which also put him at No. 10 in the Husky indoor long jump top-10. He won the shot put as well with a best of 45-10 ½, and then got a fourth win on the day in the high jump, clearing 6-8. Only the shot put mark was not a season-best, as Comin Pescador finished day one with 3,320 points. That's 84 points ahead of the pace he set in his first heptathlon this season.

Schlueter had a much improved day one from his last heptathlon in Nebraska, as he sits second behind Comin Pescador with 3,098 points. That's nearly 300 points better than his last outing. Schlueter ran a 60-meters PR of 7.04 seconds and then long jumped a PR of 23-4 ½. He was second in the shot put at 45-4 ½, and then high jumped 6-0 ¾.

All-American Ida Eikeng is set to head to nationals in the pentathlon, but she focused just on the 60-meter hurdles today, and ran another season-best. Eikeng ran 8.26 in the final, improving her No. 3 mark in school history.

Washington's weight throw standouts made their final Dempsey appearances of the season. Jayden White tossed a best today of 72-1 ¾ and will head to a third-straight NCAAs in two weeks looking to return to the podium. Beatrice Asomaning threw another PR, throwing 68-5 on her third attempt. That improves her No. 2 mark in school history, and moves her to 27th nationally but still a few feet shy of the top-16. Still it's a great mark to go outdoors on, as Asomaning will shift to the discus and hammer and look for a second NCAA Outdoor bid.

In the 5,000-meters tonight, Andrea Markezich went sub-16 for the second meet in a row, taking another second off her PR with a third-place finish in 15:54.32. That put Markezich up another spot on the Husky top-10, passing Megan Goethals, a former NCAA runner-up in the 5k outdoors.

On the men's side, Leo Daschbach got back into the mix with his first full race of the season, going 14:19.29.

Jacob Englar took sixth in the men's pole vault at 17-0 while Will Anderson cleared 15-6 ¼. On the women's side, along with Campbell's win, Sara Borton was fourth making 13-5 ¼ and Ashleigh Helms and Sarah Ferguson each made 12-11 ½.

Lauren Heggen was sixth in the triple jump, going 39-8 ¾, and freshman Rachel Bir had a season-best of 37-11 ½.

Sophomore Danielle Hunter led the team in the 200-meters, taking seventh in 24.78, while freshman Anna Terrell had a season-best of 25.07 to finish 12th.