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Artis, Ault Win Pac-12 Titles On Day One

by gohuskies.com
May 10, 2024

THIS WEEK IN HUSKY TRACK & FIELD

2024 Pac-12 Championships
May 10-12 | Boulder, Colo. | Potts Field

Event Schedule | Live Results | Heat Sheets | Pac-12 Networks | Championships Homepage

BOULDER, Colo. – Washington started its Pac-12 Track & Field men's title defense in stellar fashion today, winning the first two events that were contested at Potts Field at the University of Colorado. Chandler Ault won the javelin title with a UW and Meet Record rocket, then Prestin Artis became the first Husky won the Pac-12 long jump since the Pac-10 days in 2006.
 
The Husky men's team then closed the night with 14 combined points in the 10,000-meters final, led by a runner-up finish from Evan Jenkins. That all staked the Huskies to the lead after the first of the three-day championship, which is in Boulder for the first time and last time.
 
The UW women's team got a podium run from senior Haley Herberg who took third in the women's 10k to match her best conference finish, and it also got a storybook moment out of senior Natalie Holmer who finished seventh in the javelin, thanks to a huge personal-best on what could have been the last throw of her Husky career, but instead earned her a spot at Regionals.
 
The Husky men earned 38 day one points to take the lead over USC, which scored 21 today. The women are in seventh-place with eight points.
 
Throws
 
The first title on the men's side at this year's meet was claimed by a Dawg, and in historic fashion. Washington over the years has excelled in the men's javelin, winning it 13 times coming in, the most UW wins in any event. Senior Chandler Ault, runner-up last year, was a big favorite today coming off consecutive meets where he lengthened his PR and climbed into the NCAA top-10.
 
Ault wasted zero time as the second thrower in the order, as he launched the best throw of the day in the very first round. He essentially won the event just a minute into the action with a bomb of 254-3, a three-foot PR.

 
That would not only secure the title for Ault, but it broke the Pac-12 Championships Meet Record, as well as the UW School Record. It was 10-inches farther than Kyle Nielsen's previous UW record of 253-5, set in 2011, and also just beyond the meet record of 253-3 set by Oregon's Cyrus Hostetler in 2010.
 
Ault would continue a strong series with throws of 235-4, then 234-11, and 239-5 before he passed his final two attempts with the win all but secured. Second-place went to USC's Leif Nelson who had a best of 236-4.
 
Brice Crider, who only transitioned to throwing this year after spending most of his college athletics career as a baseball pitcher, became a Pac-12 scorer as he finished sixth in the javelin. Crider added a few more inches to his career-best today with a round three throw of 204-0.

Washington got one more point in the men's javelin as Jack Olsen placed eighth today with a best mark of 198-4.
 
Natalie Holmer provided the first huge thrill of the weekend, in the first event for the Dawgs. Out of the first of two flights, Holmer, who was seeded 12th coming in, was down to her third and potentially final throw, not just of the meet but of her collegiate career. The senior from Bothell, Wash. then picked the perfect time for the best throw of her life, by a huge margin. Holmer went 158-8, an eight-foot career-best. That led after flight one and would wind up in seventh-place at the end of the day.
 
It also extended Holmer's career for another meet, as she went from outside the top-48 in the West Region up to No. 36, which will earn her a spot at NCAA West Prelims for the first time in her career. The mark also puts Holmer at No. 9 in school history. Holmer's best finish in three prior Pac-12 Championships was 11th.
 
Kathleen Horn finished 14th overall in the javelin with a best of 142-3, and Ashley Schroeder was 16th in her first conference meet at 136-4.
 
In the women's hammer throw, senior Beatrice Asomaning came up one spot shy of making the final, as she had a best throw of 184-6 to finish 10th.
 
Jumps
 
Artis fought off one of the deepest and toughest men's long jump fields in history today to become the first Husky Pac-12 champ since Norris Frederick in 2006, and just the fourth all-time.
 
The Bellevue, Wash. product came in seeded just eighth in the conference, partly because Artis had competed sparingly since his fifth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships to manage a health concern, but also partly because the field was so strong, with four men going over 26-feet and three more at 25-5 or better.
 
Artis opened with a solid first round of 24-8 ¼ but did not improve on his next three attempts, and he was sitting in sixth-place with two rounds remaining. Round five is where he put it all together, as he went 25-6 ¼ despite going into a -1.7 m/s headwind. That shot him up into the lead. Artis had a foul in the sixth round, but no other jumper was able to pass him, and he posted a huge 10 points on the board for the Dawgs.

 
Distances
 
The opening day ended with the first two finals on the track, the men's and women's 10,000-meters. In the women's race, Haley Herberg battled the hometown Buffs at their altitude for 25 laps, coming through with a third-place finish in 34:53.47. It earned six points for the Dawgs and matched Herberg's best Pac-12 track finish from back in 2021. Saskia Lloyd finished 11th overall.

 
The men's race was led from start to finish by NCAA 10k champ Ky Robinson of Stanford, but four Dawgs were working together for most of the race to try and earn a big chunk of points for the team race. Redshirt freshman Evan Jenkins was the first to make an individual move, as he separated himself into second-place and powered to the silver medal in 29:40.61 for eight team points.
 
Fellow redshirt frosh Jamar Distel earned his first conference points, taking fifth in 29:47.83, and then Leo Daschbach came through in seventh in 29:52.76. Freshman Tyrone Gorze was 10th in 30:08.78. Distel's four points and the two points for Daschbach combined with the eight for Jenkins for a 14-point 10k haul.
 
In the 1,500-meter prelims, Washington took one-third of the finals spots on both the men's and women's sides. Four women punched their ticket through to Sunday's final, then four men followed suit.
 
In the women's heats, India Weir advanced out of section one, running 4:25.73 to take fifth. Sophie O'Sullivan, racing for the first time since February during the indoor season, won the second heat in a time of 4:21.33, while Chloe Foerster was right behind in second in 4:21.77. Julia David-Smith got the final auto-qualifying spot in that heat in 4:26.51.
 
 In the first heat of the men's prelims, 2023 champ Nathan Green and 2022 champ Joe Waskom crossed side by side in second and third, running 3:48.34 and 3:48.44 to progress back to the final. Next up came a 2-3 finish in the second heat from Luke Houser (3:46.78) and Ronan McMahon-Staggs (3:47.08) to join Green and Waskom.
 
Sprints
 
Two Dawgs moved into the finals of the men's 400-meter dash today with heat victories. Senior Jonathan Birchman won the first heat with the fastest time of the day, going 50.66. Then in the third heat, freshman Jonathan Frazier dropped his PR down to 50.99, breaking into the records at No. 8 in school history, and winning his heat as well.
 
Junior Matthew Wilkinson was just one spot out of reaching the final as well, as he was ninth in 51.79, a season's-best. Freshman Boden Hanley was 13th overall in 53.11.
 
On the women's side, freshman Kapiolani Coleman was agonizingly close to breaking into the final in her first conference meet. Coleman dropped a full second off her PR today, running 58.42, and that was just .02 seconds away from the last time qualifier for the final.
 
In the women's 200-meters, Danielle Hunter had to push into a tough -1.5 headwind, and she was 18th overall in 24.12.
 
Multis
 
Junior Jami Schlueter is the day one leader in the decathlon, building a 107-point edge over WSU's Mason Mahacek through five of the ten events. Schlueter, third as a freshman and fourth as a sophomore, will try to win a conference crown on Saturday.
 
Schlueter won two of the five events today and was second in two more. He opened with the fastest time in the 100-meters, clocking 10.87 into a headwind. He then matched his outdoor PR in the long jump, going 23-7 ½ for the second-best mark. He had the best shot put of his career to win the third event, going 47-10 ½. In the high jump, Schlueter had consecutive third-attempt makes to reach a best clearance of 6-3 ¼, and he closed out the day with the second-best 400-meters time of 49.26.

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