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Another meet record falls on Day 2 of the Pac-12 Track & Field Championships

May 15, 2021
John McGillen

CHAMPIONSHIPS CENTRAL // SCHEDULE OF EVENTS // LIVE RESULTS // DAY 2 TRACK RESULTS // DAY 2 FIELD RESULTS // SUNDAY HEAT SHEETS // ALL-TIME TOP-10 LIST // RECORD BOOK

LOS ANGELES – The second meet record in as many days was toppled at the Pac-12 Track & Field Championships at USC, both by OREGON women. On Friday it was Carmela Cardama Baez in the 10,000 and on Saturday it was Aneta Konieczek’s turn in the steeplechase.

Konieczek outdueled WASHINGTON’s Katie Rainsberger (9:38.84) to cross the line in 9:36.74, a meet record by 12 seconds, facility record by 19 seconds, school record by 14 seconds, the second-fastest time in the NCAA this season and now No. 3 on the Pac-12’s all-time list.

Titles from Konieczek and Alysah Hickey in the long jump powered the Duck women to a 38-point day and a tie for the lead through 8-of-21 events. ARIZONA STATE went 2-3-4 in the pole vault to garner 19 points and is knotted with Oregon atop the leaderboard (56 points).

Washington is right there with 53 points. The Huskies scored 16 points in the heptathlon between Lyndsey Lopes and Ida Eikeng. Lopes (5,735 points) added a second Conference title to go along with her high jump championship from 2018 while Eikeng was third with 5,659 points. Makenna Barton wrapped up the night with another 10 points for Washington, winning the pole vault after coming in seeded fifth.

Two-time defending women’s champion USC is in 10th with 14 points with a myriad of opportunities to score on Sunday. To win its last championship in 2019, the Women of Troy won seven events and scored all of their 154 points on the meet’s final day.

The Washington men maintained their lead with 13 points in the decathlon and eight apiece in the shot put and steeplechase. The Huskies have 68 points with 13 events still to go tomorrow, 13-time defending champion Oregon is second (54 points), ARIZONA third (36 points) and USC fourth (36 points). The Ducks vaulted up to No. 2 after a 47-point day, which included victories in from Jackson Mestler in the steeplechase (8:35.32) and Max Vollmer in the decathlon (7,638 points).

The Championships conclude on Sunday with the crowning of 26 more event champions as well as the Pac-12 team titles and it will all be broadcast live on Pac-12 Network, the Pac-12 Now app and Pac-12.com beginning at 3 p.m. PT with Jim Watson and four-time Olympic medal winner Ato Boldon. Streaming coverage of all field event finals will also continue Sunday on Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now app.

MEN’S TEAM LEADERBOARD (8/21 events)
1. Washington – 68
2. Oregon – 54
3. Arizona – 38
4. USC – 36
5. Stanford – 24
6. UCLA – 21.50
    Washington State – 21.50
8. California – 20
9. Arizona State – 16
10. Colorado – 13

WOMEN’S TEAM LEADERBOARD (8/21 events)
1. Oregon – 56
    Arizona State – 56
3. Washington – 53
4. UCLA – 27
5. Colorado – 23
6. California – 22
7. Arizona – 21
    Oregon State – 21
9. Stanford – 18
10. USC – 14
11. Washington State – 1

HEPTATHLON – Lyndsey Lopes, Washington (5,735 points)
Lopes won by just eight points to post the No. 2 mark in UW history and the 11th-best mark in the NCAA this year. STANFORD’s Allie Jones was up on Lopes by 26 points and 58 points on Eikeng after the long jump in the early afternoon. Eikeng went in front after winning the javelin (5,045 points) in 151-9, while Lopes moved into second (4,899 points) and Jones third (4,885 points). It came down to Jones and Lopes in the 800 and the pair finished fourth and fifth, respectively, but Jones’ 2:18.62 was closely trailed by Lopes’ 2:19.05 and not enough to overcome the gap. Finishing in second place, Jones reached or tied her PR in six of the seven events and obliterated her best overall score by 455 points.

MEN’S SHOT PUT – Jordan Geist, Arizona (66-9 ¼/20.35)
Geist went wire-to-wire to win his third consecutive men’s shot put title. He threw 65-7 ½ on his first attempt and upped that to identical marks of 66-9 ¼ on his third and fourth attempts to hold off USC’s Matthew Katnik, who came in No. 2 in the NCAA this season and went 65-8 ¾ on is final throw. Geist is this event’s sixth three-time winner, joining Nicholas Scarvelis (UCLA), Jordan Clarke (Arizona State), John Godina (UCLA), Neal Steinhauer (Oregon) and Dallas Long (USC). It is Geist’s fourth overall Pac-12 Championships title. He also won the discus in 2018.

MEN’S HIGH JUMP – Justice Summerset, Arizona (7-2½/2.20)
Tenth in 2017, third in 2018 and seventh in 2019, Summerset got his Conference title, clearing 7-2 ½ to become the Wildcats’ first winner since a four-year run from 2011-14. It was a four-man race between Summerset, Oregon’s Ben Milligan, WASHINGTON STATE’s Mitch Jacobsen and USC’s two-time defending champion Earnie Sears. Summerset and Sears cleared 7-0 ¼ on their first attempts and Milligan and Jacobsen their second. Milligan and Jacobsen cleared 7-1 ½, Sears did not and Summerset passed before clearing the winning height.

WOMEN’S LONG JUMP – Alysah Hickey, Oregon (21-7 ½/6.59)
The Ducks went 1-2 in the long jump, with Hickey and Rhesa Foster collecting 18 points. Hickey fouled on her first attempt, but leapt the winning 21-7 ½ on her second to win Oregon’s fourth event title in the past seven Pac-12 meets. The PR was the best winning mark since Christabel Nettey's (ASU) Championships record in 2013 (21-11). Foster earned her second-place finish on her sixth and final jump, which tied a career best (21-6 ¾) with the help of the wind (+3.4).

MEN’S 3,000M STEEPLECHASE – Jackson Mestler, Oregon (8:35.32)
Mestler PR’d to win Oregon’s first steeplechase crown since 2011 (Steve Finley) with the second-fastest winning time at the Conference Championships in the past 33 years. ASU’s Aaron Aguayo won in 8:35.04 in 2006. Washington State’s Colton Johnsen, the Pac-12’s top performer coming in, was in the lead with 200 meters to go, but fell over the last water jump. Washington’s Joe Waskom moved into the lead, but was passed by Mestler in the final 10 meters. Mestler and Waskom (8:35.71) both put down top-10 times in the country and Stanford’s Ky Robinson was close behind in third (8:41.81), a Cardinal freshman record.

WOMEN’S 3,000M STEEPLECHASE – Aneta Konieczek, Oregon (9:36.74)
*Championships record*

Konieczek shaved 12 seconds off the previous meet record from Colorado’s Erin Clark in 2016 (9:48.72) and 19 seconds off the Buffs’ Emma Coburn’s facility record from 2013 (9:55.67). Her time is now third on the Conference’s all-time list behind a 9:28.26 from Coburn also in 2013 and a 9:35.73 from Shalaya Kipp (Colorado) in 2012. Konieczek also ended Colorado’s run of eight consecutive women’s steeplechase titles. Rainsberger in second (9:38.84) and OREGON STATE’s Kaylee Marshall in third (9:48.30) both PR’d and achieved Olympic Trials qualifying standards.

DECATHLON – Max Vollmer, Oregon (7,638 points)
Vollmer defended his 2019 title to earn Oregon 10 points and its 19th individual decathlon championship, which is tied for the second-most event titles among men's Pac-12 teams. UCLA has won 19 discus crowns and USC has claimed the 200 on 20 occasions. CALIFORNIA’s Hakim McMorris led through the first seven events until he no heighted in the pole vault to provide Vollmer an opening. Washington’s Oliver Thorner finished second and beat Vollmer by a little more than 23 seconds in the 1,500, but it was not enough to close their 385-point gap entering the final event.

MEN’S LONG JUMP – Harrison Schrage, UCLA (25-7 ½/7.81)
Schrage's first jump of 25-7 ½ wasn’t matched the rest of the competition and stood even as he passed on his final three attempts. Fourth in the event in 2019, Schrage joins Juaune Armon (2003, 2004) as just the second Bruin in the past 28 years to win a Pac-12 long jump title.

WOMEN’S SHOT PUT – Samantha Noennig, Arizona (56-10/17.32)
Noennig defended her 2019 crown in the women's shot put with a throw of 56-10 on her fifth attempt. UCLA's Alyssa Wilson led halfway through, going 54-10 on her third attempt. She, Noennig and Arizona State's Jorinde van Klinken, each in the top 10 in the nation in the event, all faulted on their fourth throws before Noennig uncorked the winner on her fifth. van Klinken was second (56-7 ¼) and Wilson third (56-2 ¾).

WOMEN’S POLE VAULT – Makenna Barton, Washington (13-9 ¼/4.20)
Coming in seeded fifth, Barton’s outdoor PR had been 13-2 ½. After three clearances, she faced elimination at 13-5 ¼, but came through cleanly on her third try. Leading off, she was the first to clear at 13-7 ¼, but Arizona State’s Tommi Hintnaus and Haley Rayburn were also successful and nudged Barton to third based on prior attempts. Up first again at 13-9 ¼, Barton delivered the winner on her first attempt, while Hintnaus and Rayburn missed all three tries. It’s the sixth Pac-12 women's pole vault title in Husky history and the fifth in the past seven meets.