Huskies' Burns and Neale garner Pac-12 weekly honors...

SAN FRANCISCO—The Pac-12 Conference named Washington triple jumper Casey Burns (left/photo by Paul Merca) and distance runner Amy-Eloise Neale as its men’s field event and women’s track event athlete of the week for the week ending April 1st.

Burns leaped to a new career-best in the triple jump at the Texas Relays on his first attempt, going 51'-10.5" (15.81 meters) to win his section. That mark is the best in the Pac-12 so far this season, No. 2 in Washington program history and 14th in the nation.

Neale, the reigning Pac-12 cross country champion, won the 5000m in her first attempt on the track at that distance last Friday night at the Stanford Invitational, clocking 15:39.30, while out kicking reigning NCAA cross country and indoor 5000m champ Karissa Schweizer of Missouri. Neale currently ranks #2 in the NCAA going into this weekend’s meets.

The Pac-12 release is available here.

The Washington women’s team is currently ranked #13 in the latest USTFCCCA computer rankings released Monday.

The nation’s top five teams after meets ending April 1st are Oregon, Kentucky, LSU, Arkansas & Florida.

Other Pac-12 teams ranked in the national top 25 include #6 USC, and #11 Stanford.

The USTFCCCA release is available here.

Speaking of the USTFCCCA. the organization named Lewis & Clark HS graduate Josh Syrotchen (above/photo courtesy Harding University) its NCAA D2 athlete of the week for the week ending April 1st.

The native of Spokane, who attends Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, hit an NCAA Division II Automatic Qualifying mark in the discus with a hurl of 59.53m (195-4) at the Drury Hotels Joey Haines Invite this past weekend, setting a new season-best mark in the process. While in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the senior won the event title over a slew of NCAA Division I competitors.

Syrotchen measured up to NCAA Division I athletes on the week, as his top throw ranked 5th best by any collegiate athlete this past weekend, while one of his earlier throws during the meet of 58.75m (192-9) was good for 7th across all collegiate levels of track & field.

Syrotchen was second at last year’s NCAA D2 championships, and is a three-time All-American in the discus.

The USTFCCCA’s release is available here.

NOTE:  The Pac-12 Conference, the University of Washington, the USTFCCCA, and Harding University contributed to this report.