Barton, Herberg Push On To Nationals
2022 NCAA West Preliminary Championships
May 25-28 | Fayetteville, Ark. | John McDonnell Field
Men's Start Lists | Women's Start Lists | Complete Event Schedule
Friday Live Video (3pm PT)
Saturday Live Video (3pm PT)
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The women took over the action on day two of NCAA West Preliminaries, and Washington continued to build its travel party to the national championships, as Haley Herberg and Makenna Barton posted top-12 finishes to move on.
The Huskies also saw four women move from round one into the quarterfinals, which will take place Saturday. Tomorrow the men wrap up their competition at Arkansas' John McDonnell Field. The Dawgs are now up to a total of seven NCAA Championship qualifiers, with numerous chances to add to that over the next two days.
Herberg booked a return trip to the NCAA 10k final, where she was fifth a year ago, but Barton's qualification was the tremendous surprise of the day. Despite being now the two-time Pac-12 Champion in the pole vault, Barton only earned one of the last spots in the West Prelim field with her season-best make from Pac-12s. Her season-best of 13-2 ½ ranked Barton 44th in the field of 48 coming into today.
But now back fully healthy, and with better conditions than the rain-soaked Pac-12 meet, Barton was ready to go higher today. She cleared the first two heights on first attempts, making 12-6 and 12-11 ¾. The pivotal bar proved to be 13-5 ¾. Barton missed her first two attempts, but got up and over on her third and final try, and that was the difference between advancing or having her season conclude. Barton would miss three tries at the next bar, 13-9 ¾, but the final standings were settled at that height, with Barton finishing in a tie for 10th to earn her first trip to the NCAA Championships.
Herberg was steady and determined as ever in the 10k semifinal tonight. Leading a pack of four Dawgs in the field of 48, she spent the majority of the race in the top-five, and by the late stages of the race she was comfortably secure among the top-five runners, with only a top-12 finish needed to advance to Eugene. Herberg crossed the line in fourth overall in 33:40.11, as the top Pac-12 finisher.
Sophomore Naomi Smith crushed her seed coming into the 10k, as she was 17th overall in 34:18.78. She came in ranked 46th. Andrea Markezich placed 28th overall in 34:43.13, and Camila David-Smith was 31st in 34:54.05, outperforming her No. 43 entry.
The first event on the track for the Dawgs was the women's 1,500-meters. Four heats featured four Dawgs, and three were able to move through to Saturday's quarterfinal.
In heat one, Sophie O'Sullivan positioned herself in the needed top-five spots, as she came across in third-place in 4:21.12 to auto-advance. O'Sullivan is coming off a big PR at Pac-12s two weeks ago where she ran 4:17.54 to reach her first final. In the same heat, Sophie Cantine finished eighth overall in a time of 4:24.20, which was 32nd overall and would not move on.
Heat three saw Madison Heisterman place sixth in her heat, one spot from auto advancing, but her time of 4:18.87 was the fastest of the time qualifiers, moving her on to Saturday.
Lastly, Anna Gibson, the Pac-12 third-place finisher, took care of business in her heat, placing second overall in 4:20.82 to move on. The three Dawgs will race at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday.
Pac-12 Champion Carley Thomas ran a controlled race to get an auto-advancing spot in the first round of the 800-meters. Thomas hit 2:06.00 on the nose for third in her heat to get one step closer to nationals. She'll run again on Saturday at 5:05 p.m.
Shot put school record-holder MaKayla Kelby had a solid first throw today of 54-3 ¾ but then had a pair of fouls on her second and third attempts. She needed a little over a foot farther to advance, as Kelby wound up in 16th-place overall. She'll have another run at the top-12 on Saturday in the discus.
Victoria Gersch was a late add to the 400-meter field. Gersch had been rolling off PRs earlier in the season before injuring her hamstring, which knocked her out for several weeks. She made it back to compete again at Pac-12s two weeks ago and gave it a run today as well, placing 46th overall in a time of 56.64.
The first event of the day was the women's javelin. Sophomore Kathleen Horn placed 38th overall with a mark of 139-7. Multi-eventer Hannah Rusnak competed in her first javelin competition at Prelims, finishing 44th overall at 136-4.
Thursday Results
Women's 400m, First Round, Heat 4 of 6: 8. Victoria Gersch 56.64
Women's 800m, First Round, Heat 4 of 6: 3. Carley Thomas 2:06.00 (advances to quarterfinal)
Women's 1,500m, First Round, Heat 1 of 4: 3. Sophie O'Sullivan 4:21.12 (advances to quarterfinal); 8. Sophie Cantine 4:24.20; Heat 3 of 4: 6. Madison Heisterman 4:18.87 (advances to quarterfinal); Heat 4 of 4: 2. Anna Gibson 4:20.82 (advances to quarterfinal)
Women's 10,000m, Semifinal (Top-12 to NCAAs): 4. Haley Herberg 33:40.11 (advances to NCAAs); 17. Naomi Smith 34:18.78; 28. Andrea Markezich 34:43.13; 31. Camila David-Smith 34:54.05
Women's Pole Vault (Top-12 to NCAAs): tie-10. Makenna Barton 13-5 3/4.
Women's Shot Put (Top-12 to NCAAs): 16. MaKayla Kelby 54-3 3/4.
Women's Javelin (Top-12 to NCAAs): 38. Kathleen Horn 139-7; 44. Hannah Rusnak 136-4.
Huskies Advancing to NCAA Championships in Eugene
Roan Allen, Men's Javelin
Makenna Barton, Women's Pole Vault
Haley Herberg, Women's 10,000m
Kieran Lumb, Men's 10,000m
Jayden White, Men's Hammer
Ida Eikeng, Women's Heptathlon (advances without Prelim competition)
Ollie Thorner, Men's Decathlon (advances without Prelim competition)
Remaining schedule at NCAA West Preliminaries
Friday, May 27 (all times Pacific)
11:00 am - Men's Discus - Elijah Mason (Flight 3)
3:15 pm - Men's 1,500m Quarterfinal - Nathan Green, Luke Houser, Joe Waskom
3:40 pm - Men's Steeplechase Semifinal - Sam Affolder
5:25 pm - Men's 400m Hurdles Quarterfinal - Jonathan Birchman, Cass Elliott
6:10 pm - Men's 5,000m Semifinal - Brian Fay, Isaac Green, Kieran Lumb
Saturday, May 28 (all times Pacific)
11:00 am - Women's Discus - Beatrice Asomaning (Flight 3), MaKayla Kelby (Flight 3)
3:15 pm - Women's 1,500m Quarterfinal - Anna Gibson, Madison Heisterman, Sophie O'Sullivan
5:05 pm - Women's 800m Quarterfinal - Carley Thomas
6:10 pm - Women's 5,000m Semifinal - Haley Herberg, Allie Schadler