NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
March 11-12 • Birmingham, Ala. • Birmingham CrossPlex
Live Results | Day Two Live Video (ESPN3)
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HUSKIES AT NCAA INDOORS:
Saturday, March 12th (all times Pacific)
2:00 pm - Women's Pole Vault Final - Diamara Planell Cruz, Elizabeth Quick
2:10 pm - Women's Mile Final - Eleanor Fulton
2:55 pm - Women's 60m Final - Kennadi Bouyer
4:10 pm - Men's 3,000m Final - Colby Gilbert, Izaic Yorks
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – One of the most thrilling days in recent Husky track and field history saw UW's first individual NCAA title in four years followed by two of the most intense distance medley relays in the history of the meet, with the Dawgs hogging the spotlight, controlling much of both races. In many years, the Huskies would have come away with two more titles, but Washington's men and women both came in second-place in near-record times.
Senior Jax Thoirs soared to his first national championship in the pole vault today at the Birmingham CrossPlex to get the Huskies on the board. The Scottish record-holder won the first title by a Husky since Katie Flood's win in the 1,500-meters at the 2012 NCAA Outdoor meet. The momentum continued throughout the evening as Kennadi Bouyer and Eleanor Fulton each advanced to finals, with Bouyer shattering her own 60-meter school record in the process.
Then came the distance medley relays, with the men up first. The quartet of Colby Gilbert, Jacopo Spanò and Blake Nelson got the stick to mile record-holder Izaic Yorks with a small lead, and Yorks pulled away from every other team in the field with the exception of Oregon, which was anchored by 10-time NCAA champion Edward Cheserek, who had just won the 5,000-meters earlier in the evening. Cheserek caught up and then sat behind Yorks for several laps, despite Yorks rolling at a lightning-quick pace. On the final lap, Cheserek made a kick and Yorks could not quite match the sprint. Oregon won in a new meet record of 9:27.27, while the Huskies ran 9:28.00, now the third-fastest time in meet history.
While that sensational yet bittersweet finish was still lingering, the women's DMR of Baylee Mires, Krista Armstead, Fulton and Maddie Meyers brought the excitement level right back to a fever pitch. Mires led the opening leg, and Meyers got the stick in fourth place and closed the gap on the leaders. She passed Stanford's anchor on the final lap and came up just a couple strides short of Georgetown which won in 10:57.21, compared to a 10:58.52 for the Huskies, the second-best time in school history.
The Huskies end day one in second place on the men's side with 18 team points, while the women are tied for 10th with eight points.
Head Coach Greg Metcalf started his recap with praise for the new champion Thoirs. “It's fantastic for Jax and Coach Licari. To be honest, Jax probably hasn't had the indoor season that he maybe envisioned, but it's not how you start, it's how you finish, and he competed well and there was carnage in the vault and he was the last man standing. It's a testament to the kind of competitor he is, so that was a phenomenal win and great for our team today.”
The men's DMR finish was the best in school history, surpassing a trio of fifth-place finishes from the mid-2000s. Gilbert had an eventful opening leg, getting stuck on the rail and jostled but making a key move to the outside late and pushing up into the lead. He handed to Spano who only increased the lead over his 400-meters. Nelson, not a regular to the 800m and with an indoor PR of 1:53, split a 1:50 to keep the lead for Yorks. The Lakewood, Wash. senior who ran the fastest American collegiate indoor mile two weeks ago of 3:53.89, was not shy of taking the lead and going for it, and his official split of 3:54.24 was 3.5 seconds faster than every other anchor, except for Cheserek.
Spano passing to Nelson in the lead in the men's DMR tonight.
“The DMR on the men's side, that's as good as anyone has ever ran the DMR at nationals,” said Metcalf. “For our guys to run how they did; Colby ran great, Jacopo ran great, Blake Nelson runs a great PR for him, and for Izaic to anchor in 3:53 or 3:54, it took 3:52 from maybe the greatest college distance runner of all time to beat him. So for our guys to finish second in that fashion, there's really nothing more we could have done today.
Mires went out aggressively and never relinquished the lead on the opening leg of the women's DMR, splitting 3:23 and passing to Krista Armstead in her NCAA debut who ran 55.31 for 400-meters. Fulton improved on her 800-meter PR in her leg, clocking 2:05.54 to keep the Huskies right in it and passing to Meyers who had the second-fastest 1,600-meter carry of 4:34.23. The second-place finish trails only the 2012 NCAA Championship in UW history, which Mires was also a part of. The women's DMR improved from fifth a year ago, in a final that saw five teams break 11 minutes for the first time ever at nationals.
The women's DMR on the podium after its 10:58.52 time earned second-place.
Thoirs becomes the fourth NCAA Champion for assistant coach Pat Licari in the pole vault, joining Brad Walker (two titles), Scott Roth (three titles), and Kate Soma (one title) for a total of seven national championships. The Huskies have had incredible success on the men's side at NCAA Indoors, as both of Walker's wins came indoors in 2003 and 2004, and Roth won indoors in 2010 and 2011, so the win for Thoirs makes five indoor titles in a 14 year span in the men's vault. Thoirs went from a tie for eighth at the 2014 NCAA Indoor Championships, to fourth last season, and now to the top spot.
Thoirs entered at the opening height of 17-2 ¾ and cleared it with no problem. He missed once but then made 17-6 ½, but then ran into his first real drama at 17-10 ½, as he had two near misses. At that point, Thoirs said he knew only one other vaulter had made that height, and it was one he'd made many times in his career, and twice this season, so he couldn't let the opportunity pass. He planted and swung up and sailed over the bar, letting out a roar on the way down.
Only four vaulters remained moving to 18-0 ½, with Thoirs going as the last jumper in the order at that point. After one round of misses, the first three jumpers all missed for a second time, giving Thoirs another opening, and he broke through it once again, clearing the bar cleanly to go into the lead. When the final competitors missed their third tries, Thoirs grabbed his head with a happy smile of disbelief and knew he had done it. He elected to move the bar up to an Olympic standard of 18-8 ¼, but ran through the pit on his first attempt, and pulled up short on a second try, and chose to call it a day, as he could feel a threat of cramping in the humid building.
“I am absolutely over the moon,” said Thoirs. “I honestly can't believe it. This has been my goal all along since I've been at Washington, to finally get the win at my last indoor championships feels amazing. It definitely felt like it was a possibility. The NCAA hasn't been particularly high in the pole vault this year, so even not jumping at my best I was still right up in there and it was a wide open competition, and I had to take advantage of it, and I'm glad I did.”
Despite running a school record 7.32 seconds to take second in the 60-meter dash at the MPSF Championships, junior Kennadi Bouyer initially was not in the NCAA field, missing the 16th spot by .01 seconds. But a late medical scratch put Bouyer into the mix as the last qualifier. Today, running in the second of two semifinal heats, Bouyer blazed to a new PR and another school record in 7.27 seconds, and while that was just sixth in her heat, only two times from the first semifinal were faster, so Bouyer goes from out of the meet, to the last one in, to making the NCAA final on Saturday. She also earned that eighth spot by just seven-thousandths of a second over Myasia Jacobs of Clemson.
Kennadi Bouyer lowered her school record to 7.27 in the 60m and squeaked into Saturday's final.
Senior Eleanor Fulton made the first NCAA final of her career, getting through in the women's mile by a fraction of a second. With 10 women moving on out of the two eight-woman semis, Fulton grabbed the final spot with a time of 4:38.37 out of the second heat, just four hundredths of a second ahead of the 11th-place time which came from heat one. It was the second-fastest time of the senior's career.
Senior Aaron Nelson capped his indoor Husky career with a career-best NCAA finish as he took 11th overall in the 5,000-meter final tonight. Nelson came in as the 16th seed overall so he knocked off five higher-seeded runners, but he came up just a few spots short of the podium. Nelson picked up several spots with a strong final two laps, finishing with a time of 14:00.74. He was 12th in the 5k last year, and will earn All-America Second Team distinction for the second straight year.
Senior Chris Williams made his NCAA Indoor Championships debut today in the 60-meter hurdles. The school record-holder was right in the thick of things until a small stumble at the third hurdle which broke up his momentum. He finished seventh in his heat in 7.86 seconds which was the 12th-best time overall and will earn him Second Team All-America honors.
NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships
Day 1 of 2 – March 11, 2016
Birmingham, Ala. – Birmingham CrossPlex
Husky Results
Men
60m Hurdles Semifinal (Heat 1 of 2): 6. Chris Williams, 7.86 (12th Overall; Does Not Advance)
5,000m Final: 11. Aaron Nelson, 14:00.74.
Distance Medley Relay Final: 2. Gilbert/Spanò/B. Nelson/Yorks, 9:28.00
Pole Vault Final: 1. Jax Thoirs, 18-0 ½ (NCAA Champion)
Women
60m Dash Semifinal (Heat 2 of 2): 6. Kennadi Bouyer, 7.27 (8th overall; Advances To Final)
Mile Semifinal (Heat 2 of 2): 6. Eleanor Fulton, 4:38.37 (10th Overall; Advances To Final)
Distance Medley Relay Final: 2. Mires/Armstead/Fulton/Meyers, 10:58.52.
