Houser Defends NCAA Title In Mile Run

Saturday, March 9

Boston, MA

7:30 AM

University of Washington

NCAA Indoor Championships

March 09, 2024 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

Complete Results

BOSTON – Luke Houser took it to the house again and kept the Washington mid-distance domination going for a fourth-straight national championship in the mile/1500-meters. The defending champion in the men's mile defended in style today at The TRACK At New Balance, becoming just the 10th man in history to go back-to-back in one of indoor track's marquee events.

The Woodinville, Wash. native essentially took the lead with four laps and 800-meters still to run and never relinquished it, with his long, gliding strides checking every attempted move from a rival. Houser powered to the finish in a time of 4:01.72, two-tenths of a second ahead of Wisconsin's Adam Spencer in second-place.

Immediately recapping the race with ESPN's John Anderson, Houser said, "I took the lead early, because I knew positioning was so important. I was getting challenged every lap, someone was coming up on my shoulder, but I just had to keep fighting to hold them off. I was able to get all the way home."

Joe Waskom, who started UW's title streak at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor meet, found himself boxed in on the last lap and then got tripped with less than a hundred meters to go and he finished in eighth-place to pick up one more point for UW.

Houser is the first back-to-back NCAA Mile Champion since Josh Kerr in 2017-18, who recently won the 2023 World Outdoor Championship at 1,500 meters. He also is just the fourth Husky ever to successfully defend an NCAA title, and the first ever in a running event. The last man to do it was Scott Roth, who won consecutive indoor pole vault titles in 2010-11.

"It's certainly not easy the second time around," said Houser. "You still have got to put in the same work, week in and week out. I knew what it took to win, so every day I showed up to practice with that champion's mentality, and put in the work all year to get to this point."

???? BACK 2 BACK!! LUKE IS GOATED!! ????

He put himself out there and nobody could take down the Champ!!#GoHuskies x #NCAATF x ?? ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/GrOxoUOgMn
— Washington Track & Field and Cross Country (@UWTrack) March 9, 2024

The victory for Houser, along with podium finishes for Joe Waskom, Wilma Nielsen, and Bruno Comin Pescador brought the meet and the indoor season to a close for the Dawgs.

Washington finished in 10th-place on the men's side with 20 points. It's the fifth top-10 finish in program history, and the second in a row after last year's program-record fourth-place finish. This is just the second time in school history the men have had consecutive top-10 finishes, the prior time coming in 2007-08.

The women's team also had one of its best meets in program history, finishing 17th overall with 13 total points. It's the highest for the women's team since 2016, and the fourth-highest in program history. After last year's 24th-place finish, the women have consecutive top-25 finishes for the first time ever at NCAA Indoors.

With Hana Moll winning the women's pole vault title on Friday and Houser taking the mile today, it's the first time that Washington has won multiple titles at one championship meet since the 2006 outdoor championship, when Ryan Brown won the men's 800-meters and Amy Lia won the women's 1,500-meters.

Nielsen Takes 6th For Best Finish In School History
First year transfer to UW Wilma Nielsen delivered the best finish by a Husky ever in the women's 800-meters, as she fought for a sixth-place finish that was a fraction of a second away from third.

The race was won in the fastest time in meet history, so it was out very quickly, and Nielsen went with the aggressive tempo in fifth-place for the first couple laps. On the final lap she moved to fourth and was inching into third coming into the homestretch, but it turned into a blanket wave of four runners crossing behind the top-two, and Nielsen wound up sixth overall in 2:02.33.

Nielsen, a native of Gothenburg, Sweden, was just .02 seconds out of fifth, and she was just .18 seconds out of third-place.

Wilma Nielsen's ?? makes it 7? Dawgs who collected new hardware this weekend in Boston.#GoHuskies x #NCAATF pic.twitter.com/rOXJx0awuw
— Washington Track & Field and Cross Country (@UWTrack) March 10, 2024

Comin Pescador Grinds His Way To Fifth In Heptathlon
The Spanish national decathlon champion headed into day two of the heptathlon sitting in eighth-place overall. In the opening 60-meter hurdles, Comin Pescador had the ninth-fastest time overall, clocking 8.16 seconds. He then tied for sixth in the pole vault with a clearance of 15-11 ¼. He was still eighth heading into the final 1,000-meters, but with very slim margins separating fifth through eighth.

Comin Pescador left it all out on the track in the final run, as he's proven willing to do. He finished fifth in a time of 2:38.75, with the closest men he was trailing in the standings finishing several seconds behind him. When the points were tabulated, Comin Pescador had jumped from eighth all the way to fifth.

He finished with 5,941 points and his fifth-place finish is the best ever for a Husky in the event. Previously, his own eighth-place finish last year was tied with an eighth-place finish from Jeremy Taiwo in 2011 for the best by a Dawg.

?? Bruno gets a best make today at 15-11 1/4! He sets himself up well for the final event, the 1,000-meter run scheduled for 12:30pm Pacific#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/METOF2MMsG
— Washington Track & Field and Cross Country (@UWTrack) March 9, 2024

Washington will now have a couple weeks to finish finals and reload for the coming outdoor season, which will begin for the team in Palo Alto with the Stanford Invitational at the end of March.

Washington's Back-to-Back NCAA Champions
2023-24 – Luke Houser – Mile (indoor)
2010-11 – Scott Roth – Pole Vault (indoor)
2003-04 – Brad Walker – Pole Vault (indoor)
1976-79 – Scott Neilson – Hammer Throw (outdoors, four-straight)

Washington's Streak of Four-Straight NCAA titles in the Mile/1,500-meters
2022 1,500m Outdoors – Joe Waskom
2023 Mile Indoors – Luke Houser
2023 1,500m Outdoors – Nathan Green
2024 Mile Indoors – Luke Houser

NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships
Mar. 9 | Day 3 of 3
Boston, Mass. | The TRACK At New Balance

WASHINGTON DAY 3 RESULTS

Women's 800m, Final
6. Wilma Nielsen, 2:02.33 (First Team All-America)

Men's Mile, Final
1. Luke Houser, 4:01.72 (NCAA Champion; First Team All-America)
8. Joe Waskom, 4:03.26 (First Team All-America)

Men's 3,000m, Final
15. Luke Houser, 8:08.03 (Second Team All-America)

Men's Heptathlon, Events 5-7

Hep 60m Hurdles
9. Bruno Comin Pescador, 8.16

Hep Pole Vault
6 (tie). Bruno Comin Pescador, 15-11 ¼

Hep 1,000m
5. Bruno Comin Pescador, 2:38.75

Final Heptathlon Standings
5. Bruno Comin Pescador, 5941 points (First Team All-America)

WASHINGTON DAY 2 RESULTS

Women's 800m, Semifinals
Heat 1 of 2
3. Wilma Nielsen, 2:02.56 (advances to final)
8. Carley Thomas, 2:05.34 (does not advance; Second Team All-America)

Women's Mile, Semifinals
Heat 1 of 2
7. Chloe Foerster, 4:36.35 (does not advance; Second Team All-America)

Women's Distance Medley Relay, Final
11. Washington (Chloe Foerster, Anna Terrell, Marlena Preigh, India Weir), 11:04.06 (Second Team All-America)

Women's Pole Vault, Final
1. Hana Moll, 15-1 (NCAA Champion; First Team All-America)
11 (tie). Nastassja Campbell, 14-1 ¼ (Second Team All-America)

Men's 800m, Semifinals
Heat 1 of 2
6. Nathan Green, 1:48.38 (does not advance; Second Team All-America)

Men's Mile, Semifinals
Heat 1 of 2
2. Joe Waskom, 3:57.13 (advances to final)

Heat 2 of 2
2. Luke Houser, 3:58.62 (advances to final)

Men's Distance Medley Relay, Final
9. Washington (Evan Jenkins, Daniel Gaik, Ronan McMahon-Staggs, Leo Daschbach), 9:30.40 (Second Team All-America)

Men's Pole Vault, Final
11 (tie). Mathis Bresko, 17-4 ½ (Second Team All-America)
11 (tie). Max Manson, 17-4 ½ (Second Team All-America)

Men's Long Jump, Final
5. Prestin Artis, 26-3 (First Team All-America)

Men's Heptathlon
Hep 60m
13. Bruno Comin Pescador, 7.12

Hep Long Jump
12. Bruno Comin Pescador, 22-10 ½

Hep Shot Put
6. Bruno Comin Pescador, 47-11 ¾

Hep High Jump
4. Bruno Comin Pescador, 6-8

Heptathlon Day One Standings
8. Bruno Comin Pescador, 3244

WASHINGTON DAY 1 RESULTS

Men's Weight Throw
8. Jayden White, 72-11 ¼ (First Team All-America)