Elliott Breaks Hurdles Record In Arizona

Saturday, April 29

Fresno, CA

All Day

University of Washington

Fresno State Invitational

April 30, 2023 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

SEATTLE – Senior Cass Elliott, a product of West Seattle High School, took down the long-standing Washington School Record in the 400-meter hurdles tonight at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson, Ariz. Elliott, the defending Pac-12 Champion in the event, won against a talented field in a time of 49.26 seconds, the fourth-fastest in the NCAA this year.

It's the second School Record of 2023 for Elliott, who ran the indoor 800-meter school record in February. His time today broke the 2006 record held by Shane Charles, the last Husky to win the Pac-12 title in that event prior to Elliott last year. Two weeks ago at the Mt. SAC Relays, he got under the 50-second barrier for the first time in his career, and now he's closing in on the 49-second mark.

The action at Arizona was one of three big meets for the Huskies today, also including the famed Penn Relays, and the Fresno State Invitational.

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Cass chases down the ???????????? ???????????? in the 400-meter Hurdles!!

He wins in Tucson tonight in a time of 4?9?.2?6? to break Shane Charles' mark of 49.51 that was set in 2006.@CassWElliott also goes to #?4? in the NCAA this year!#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/dxQpYgNVbT
— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) April 30, 2023

Desert Heat Classic

In the same race as Cass Elliott's record, also setting a lifetime-best was junior Jonathan Birchman, who rolled to a time of 50.40, moving up to No. 5 in school history and 17th nationally based on marks entering the weekend. Matthew Wilkinson also had a season-best 52.02 tonight.

Other sprint results saw Anthony Smith clock a 200-meters time of 21.09, and Daniel Gaik ran 21.50. Closing out the track action, the Husky men's 4x400m relay took fifth in a time of 3:10.60.

MaKayla Kelby took third in the women's shot put with a best of 54-6, and Kaia Tupu-South was fourth at 54-0. Kelby was also fourth in the women's discus, throwing 171-10, while Beatrice Asomaning threw 163-7 and Tupu-South threw 161-4.

Elijah Mason was the second collegiate finisher in the men's discus, getting a best of 196-10 on his first throw of the competition.

Freshman Saydi Orange took fifth in the women's javelin at 159-11, and Natalie Holmer threw over 150-feet for the first time with a mark of 150-8. Tanya Simora was right behind at 150-1.

The final event in Tucson was the men's javelin, where Chandler Ault again led the way, finishing second-place with a strong series that had a best of 229-0. Jack Olsen threw a big season's-best of 209-7, and Brady Gockel went 198-2.

Huskies Return To Penn Relays

For the first time since 2009, the Huskies were represented at the legendary Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia today.

The Husky women's squad collected a runner-up and a third-place finish today at Penn, while the men got a third-place finish in the 4xMile.

First up was the women's 4x1500-meter relay. Freshman Chloe Foerster led off and passed the stick in the lead in approximately 4:17. Carley Thomas then kept the Huskies up front with a 4:20 split as she and an Oklahoma State runner passed off side-by-side in the lead. Kayley DeLay then had another 4:20 split with the Dawgs running in a three-way battle with OSU and Providence. Sophie O'Sullivan anchored and clocked a 4:18 split, finishing a few seconds behind Providence which won in 17:11.35 and OSU. The Huskies total time was 17:15.64.

The much-anticipated men's mile was up next, but it largely proved to be a tactical affair with only a handful of sub-four-minute split times scattered throughout the full field. Aaron Ahl led off for the Huskies and ran 4:03.20. Sam Ellis then had one of the days fastest splits, going 3:58.38 on the second leg and moving UW up from 10th to 3rd. Joe Waskom kept UW in a big pack up front with a time of 4:02.54 and passed to Luke Houser. All the anchor legs slowed the pace way down for a couple laps, turning it into anyone's race in the final sprint finish. Houser was boxed in and tried to make a late move once he got room but Villanova had come around outside of the rest of the field and won in 16:14.03, followed by Wisconsin in 16:14.24, and Washington in 16:14.31.

The women came back to the track for the 4x800-meters with three of the same four legs as earlier. Madison Heisterman joined the mix, running leg two. Foerster once again got the Huskies into the lead after one leg, splitting 2:07.45. Heisterman then split 2:07.50 with the Huskies in second. O'Sullivan ran the third leg and split 2:07.83 as Penn State opened up a several second lead with the Huskies in second and another gap to Villanova and Michigan in third and fourth. Thomas anchored and had the best split of the group in 2:05.72 but Penn State won for the second year in a row in 8:23.81 with the Huskies in second in 8:28.50.

The men had the same four runners back to race the 4x800-meters as well, but with a much shorter turnaround time than the women had to recover. The Dawgs were unable to make much headway in the race and finished ninth in 7:28.40. Houser had the top split in 1:50.50 on the lead-off leg.

Fresno State Invitational

The jumpers and multi-eventers were the main groups in action in Fresno. The group was highlighted by the men's jumpers, who won three of the four jump events.

The first win came from Prestin Artis, who had an outdoor season-best of 24-11 ¼, which moved him into the Husky top-10 list at the No. 8 spot.

Not long after, Jacob Englar took the victory in the pole vault, getting a first attempt clearance at 17-4 ½.

Another win then came from Tim Luebbert, who leaped a lifetime-best of 50-4 ½ to easily win the triple jump. That moves him into Top-10 territory for the first time as he is now No. 9 in school history.

Lauren Heggen was seventh in the women's triple jump with a best of 39-11 ¼ and Rachel Bir jumped a small PR of 38-6 ¼ for ninth-place. Heggen also had a long jump best of 18-8.

In the women's pole vault invite section, the Huskies ran the show. Nastassja Campbell was the top collegiate finisher in second overall with a best of 13-11 ¾. The winner was current volunteer coach Olivia Gruver, the Husky record-holder. Sara Borton took third, making 13-7 ¾. Sarah Ferguson made an outdoor season-best of 13-3 ¾ and Holland Pilukas also had a season-best of 12-11 ¾. Ashleigh Helms cleared the same height as Pilukas.

The multis group got a lot of work in various events, with a big highlight being Ollie Thorner racing in the open section of the 1,500-meters. Coming off a big PR in the 1,500m at the end of his decathlon at the Mt. SAC Relays, Thorner took seven more seconds off that PR with a time of 4:11.17.

Thorner also got in a 15-7 clearance in the pole vault, and in the shot put he went 43-0 ½.

Jami Schlueter threw 43-6 in the shot put.

Bruno Comin Pescador had a strong javelin throw of 184-11 and a shot put of 42-6 ¾ as well as a discus toss of 139-10.

Ida Eikeng was second overall in the women's javelin, going 160-8 and she was fifth in the shot put at 45-10 ½. She also ran the 200-meters, posting a time of 24.03 for 10th overall.