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Back-to-Back Pac-12 Champs!
Conference Championship meet closes out in amazing fashion for men’s and women’s teams
BY GOHUSKIES.COM
Once was historic. Twice was euphoric. The Washington men's track and field team never won the Pac-12 title in the first 63 years of the conference, but UW broke through to win in 2023, and in 2024 they completed their title defense, riding off into the Pac-12 sunset as back-to-back champions.
In the first Pac-12 Championships held at altitude, at Colorado’s Potts Field in Boulder, the Dawgs stayed kings of the mountain on the men's side, finishing off a 150-point performance from its 28-man crew to hold off second-place USC (141 points) and third-place California (95 points). The storied conference will go its separate ways next season, with Washington off to the Big Ten.
The Husky women's team placed fifth in its final Pac-12 appearance, marking five consecutive top-five finishes under Maurica Powell. The women scored 69 points, highlighted by an enormous 28-points in the pole vault (as UW finished 1-2-3-5 in that event) and a 1,500 meters title from Chloe Foerster, the first Husky to win that event since 2009.
Washington's second-straight team title only further cements the historic rise up through the conference ranks during Head Coach Andy Powell's tenure. The men were eighth at this meet prior to Powell taking over, then went to fourth in year one, up to third in 2021, then second in 2022 and to the top spot in 2023. With nowhere to go but down, the Dawgs instead chose to stay on top.
“It was just a great team effort,” said Andy Powell. “It wasn’t necessarily the guys that won (titles) that won this championship, it was all the second, third, fourth, fifth-place finishers.”
To Powell’s point, last year the Huskies took the title behind a program record seven individual victories, scoring 151 points. This year the Huskies scored 150, but with only three titles (Chandler Ault, Javelin; Prestin Artis, Long Jump; and Joe Waskom, Steeplechase). The depth got it done for the Dawgs.
Distances
The first big highlight on the track came from Foerster in the women's 1,500 meter final. In an incredibly deep field, Foerster positioned herself well in third place midway through, and then up into second at the bell lap. The sophomore from Portland made her move into the lead past Oregon’s Silan Ayyildiz with about 200 meters to go. Ayyildiz made a last push to try and regain the lead, but Foerster showed her strength and determination and only pulled farther away to win by nearly a second in a time of 4:16.33 to the 4:17.15 of Ayyildiz.
In the men’s 1,500 meters, the Huskies had four finalists of their own: Nathan Green, Luke Houser, Joe Waskom, and Ronan McMahon-Staggs. They ultimately maneuvered their way into a 2-34-5 finish, just missing the individual title but still piling up a huge 23 team points in the event. Green was the runner-up, Houser took third, Waskom fourth, and McMahon-Staggs fifth.
In the 800 meters, the women had another trio of finalists while the men had two more in the mix.
Wilma Nielsen challenged for the lead late and took fourth place in a quick 2:03.53. Samantha Friborg was sixth in 2:05.83, and Marlena Preigh was seventh in 2:07.15, as the three combined for 10 team points.
In the men’s 800 meter final, Green took fourth in 1:49.97 and Houser was fifth in 1:50.20, which meant another nine points for the men.
The last distance race was the 5,000-meters, with just the 4 x 400 meter relay to follow. At that point, the Husky men's team still needed three points to officially clinch the team title over USC.
Leo Daschbach delivered, who had scored in the 10K on Friday in seventh and fought his way up to fifth place in the 5K in 14:20.30 and earned the needed four points to clinch. Evan Jenkins, the 10K runner-up, also tacked on one more point in eighth in 14:27.90.
In the women’s 5K, Haley Herberg earned one final point for her Husky Pac-12 career, as she was eighth in 16:49.21.
Jumps
The women’s pole vault crew put on a show for the ages, though it was not seen by many as the inclement weather forced the vault and men's high jump to be held indoors, a mile from Potts Field, at the football indoor practice facility.
Nevertheless, the Huskies were clinical in sweeping the podium for the second time in program history, the last time coming in 2015. Twin sisters Hana and Amanda Moll went 1-2, and 2023 Pac-12 Co-Champion Nastassja Campbell took third, while the other Co-Champ, Sara Borton, was fifth. All told, that was an enormous 28-point haul for the No. 1-ranked women's vault group.
Amanda Moll, Campbell and Borton all jumped outdoor season-bests, and Hana Moll was over 15feet once again to get the victory. Hana Moll's winning height was 15-0 ½, and her sister made 14-10 ¼, the highest that Amanda has flown so far in her freshman season. Campbell cleared 14-4 ½ for third, and Borton cleared 14-0 ½, giving the Dawgs an amazing four 14-foot vaulters in the same meet.
Yet another crucial event to the men’s team title was the triple jump, where freshman Trevontay Smith and senior Kunle Akinlosotu came up big with a 3-4 finish to post 11 points. The two finished within less than an inch of each other, as Smith had a best of 50-0 ¾ and Akinlosotu jumped 500. Roman Hutchinson was ninth overall at 47-0 ¼.
In the women’s triple jump, Lauren Heggen continued her career-best season as she scored for the first time in her career, earning a fifth-place finish at 41-3 ¼.
Leland Lieberg came up just one bar shy of scoring in the men’s high jump, as he finished ninth overall with a make of 6-6.
Sprints
First came the 110 meter hurdles final, which freshman Johnathan Frazier was not slated to reach to begin with, but he got the eighth and final qualifying spot. Picking up one point for eighth would have been fine for all the Husky faithful, but Frazier went out and took fifth overall with a PR of 14.42 seconds despite a -1.8 headwind.
In the 400 meter hurdles final, Birchman and Frazier each dug in and started to close the gap down the homestretch. Frazier had a big last gap surge and he nearly caught WSU’s Jared McAlvey, who collapsed across the finish line. McAlvey won in 49.84 with Frazier barely second in 49.87, and Birchman right behind in third place in 50.00.
Both times were huge PRs for Frazier and Birchman, and Frazier also shattered the UW Freshman Record set in 2019 by 2022 and 2023 Pac-12 Champion Cass Elliott. Frazier now ranks No. 5 in UW history and Birchman goes to No. 6, as he broke his 50.40 career best. It was another big 14 points for the team score.
The meet wrapped up with the 4 x 400 meter relays. The women ran a solid time of 3:39.08 for 10th-place as Danielle Hunter, Anna Terrell, Marlena Preigh, and Kapiolani Coleman clocked a time that ranks No. 6 in school history. The men sent out all four of their 400-meter hurdlers (Boden Hanley, Matthew Wilkinson, Birchman and Frazier) taking ninth in a time of 3:11.88
Throws
The women’s discus was the first throwing event of the day. Kaia Tupu-South, after taking fourth in the shot put on Saturday, started things off by easily leading the first flight with a toss of 171-6. That would finish 10th overall after flight two was done, just missing the final by one spot. Senior Beatrice Asomaning got into that final out of the second flight, and she finished eighth with a best throw of 174-5, netting one point for the squad.
In the men’s discus, Nolan Such placed 14th overall, getting one fair throw of 155-0 along with a couple of fouls.
