Nathan Bultman Wins Hammer Throw Title To Open Up Pac-12 Track & Field Championships

Nathan Bultman won and Trey Knight finished fifth in the men's hammer throw and Joy McArthur placed sixth in the women's hammer throw to lead the Trojans during the first day of the 2021 Pac-12 Track & Field Championships being hosted by USC at Loker Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. today (May 14).  USC also had eight athletes advance to event finals on Sunday. 

The new three-day format for the Pac-12 T&F Championships began with the hammer throw competition at UCLA in the morning and finished with 10 events and the first day of the multi-events at USC.  With three events scored out of 21, the USC men's team has 14 points and is tied for second place, while the women's team has scored three points and is tied for ninth place.

• Bultman already had surpassed his previous personal best two times and had clinched the Pac-12 men's hammer throw title, before he uncorked a PR of 239-10 (73.12m) in the final round to put an exclamation point on his performance.  Bultman won his second Pac-12 hammer throw title (also in 2018) and moved into fourth on USC's all-time hammer throw list.  His mark ranks third on the national list this season and he has posted a personal best in four consecutive meets.  Bultman's winning throw was the farthest by a Pac-12 champion since USC's Balazs Kiss threw 254-1 in 1996 to win his fourth consecutive title. Trey Knight finished fifth with a best throw of 217-11 (66.44m) and Christian Johnson finished 10th with a PR of 196-10 (60.00m).  Bultman (10) and Knight (4) teamed up to earn the Trojans 14 points.  USC has now won the men's hammer throw title at the Pac-12 Championships 15 times, more than any other conference school. 
• McArthur placed sixth in the women's hammer throw with her first-round throw of 194-2 (59.18m).  Karlee Freeman placed 13th in the event with a throw of 167-8 (51.10m). 
• Davonte Burnett ran a 200m PR of 20.72 (+1.6) to automatically advance to the event final on Sunday.  He won his M-200m heat and had the fastest qualifying time.  Kenan Christon took second in his 200m heat with a time of 21.23 (+0.2) and finished ninth overall, just missing out on advancing.  Alexander Barnum had a season-best time of 21.57 (+1.6) for fifth in his heat and 16th overall.
• All four Trojan women who competed advanced to the women's 200m final on Sunday.  Lanae-Tava Thomas won the final heat and had the fastest qualifying time of 23.09 (+2.5w).  TeeTee Terry won her heat and advanced third to the final with a time of 23.23 (+2.7w), Angie Annelus was second in her heat with a time of 23.28 (+2.5w) to advance fifth and Nicole Yeargin took second in her heat and was seventh overall with a time of 23.48 (+1.0).
• Cameron Samuel won his men's 400m hurdles prelim heat with a time of 49.72 to automatically advance to Sunday's final.  His time was tops among the qualifiers by over 1.5 seconds.
• Anna Cockrell won her women's 400m hurdles heat with a time of 56.87 to advance second to the final.  Breanna Bernard-Joseph took second in her heat and advanced fourth overall to the final with a time of 58.29.
• George Gleason took seventh in the first section and finished 13th overall in the men's 1500m race with a season-best time of 3:44.15.  He missed advancing to the final by one position.  Gleason's time moved him from eighth to fifth on USC's all-time list in the event.

The Pac-12 T&F Championships will continue tomorrow at Loker Stadium on the USC campus beginning at 1 p.m. with the multi