Darhian Mills breaks UW school record in 400 hurdles to advance to NCAA championships...

SACRAMENTO—University of Washington junior Darhian Mills  (left/photo by Paul Merca) ran a personal best in the 400 hurdles to break a 24-year old school record and advance to the NCAA championships to highlight action at the NCAA West Preliminary Round meet Friday at Hornet Stadium on the campus of Sacramento State University.

Running in the third of three quarterfinal rounds, Mills finished second in a time of 57.02 behind USC’s Anna Cockrell, who ran 56.83 for the win.

In the process, Mills took down the Washington school record of 57.13 set in 1995 by Terra Barter.

Mills’ time was the fifth fastest on the day.

The Huskies’ Denham Patricelli left no doubt that he was advancing to the NCAA championships in Austin in two weeks with a second place finish in the javelin, throwing 239-3 (72.93m) on his first attempt.

The field events were good to the Dawgs, as Elijah Mason (188-5/57.44m) and Jonah Wilson (181-1/55.19m) both advanced in the discus, with Mason finishing fifth, and Wilson getting the 12th and final spot to Austin.

Pole vaulter Olivia Gruver, who did not compete at the Pac-12 championship meet, needed a clutch third attempt clearance at 14-0 (4.27m) to continue on in the competition, but salted away a return to the NCAA championships with a first attempt clearance at 14-2 (4.32m) to complete the first step towards winning a third NCAA title.

Washington senior Emily Hamlin punched her ticket to Austin, running a personal best 9:53.11 to finish third in her heat of the 3000 steeplechase behind former Husky Charlotte Prouse (9:50.56), now running for the University of New Mexico.

In the men's 3000 steeplechase, Washington's Alex Slenning found himself the unlucky 13th man, as he finished fourth in heat 2 in a personal best 8:43.23, just missing advancing by one place. The top three in each of the three qualifying heats advanced to Austin, plus the three fastest times from all three combined heats.  All of the time qualifiers to Austin came from the first heat.

Day 2 results from the NCAA West Preliminary Round are available here.

COMBINED EVENTS SPECIALISTS MAIER AND CAI GET FIRST TEAM ALL-AMERICA HONORS AT D2 CHAMPS…

At the Division II championships in Kingsville, Texas, hosted by Texas A&M/Kingsville, Central Washington’s Braydon Maier moved up from tenth at the end of day 1 in the decathlon to finish seventh with a final score of 6854 points, earning himself First Team All-America honors.

Braydon has consistently been strong during the second day of the decathlon throughout the season," CWU head coach Kevin Adkisson said. "He didn't do anything amazing as far as marks in each event are concerned, but every event was solid. That consistency helped him move up throughout the competition. It's great for him to come out of his sophomore year with two All-American finishes already."

Maier opened the day with a strong performance in the 110 hurdles, finishing fourth overall in 15.14. He heaved the disc 36.57m (119-11) for a seventh-place finish in the event. Up next was the pole vault, possibly Maier's strongest event. He cleared 4.40m (14-05.25), sixth best in the event.

Maier continued to perform well in the javelin throw. Maier put together a toss of 47.27, landing him in eighth for the event. The decathlon wrapped up with the 1,500-meter race. Maier turned it up one more notch, hustling to a fifth-place finish in the race with a time of 4:40.63.

Cai tallied a career-best 5,054 points through two days of competition at Javelina Stadium. That was 20 points better than her previous best of 5,034 from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference heptathlon on April 29-30, was her third 5,000 of the year and the fourth of her career.

She started day 2 with a best of 17-9 (5.41m) in the long jump, then threw the javelin 126-8 (38.60m) to enter the 800 meters in eighth place overall.

In the final event, she ran 2:23.64 to finish fifth in the event, and seventh overall.

"Scout had a pretty steady performance over two days, which was unique in this field, actually," SPU head coach Karl Lerum said. "A big factor was the conditions. It was hot, it was windy and humid – it wasn't easy to be out there and stay focused for two days. I thought Scout did a good job of taking one event at a time and seeing this thing through."

Cai returns Saturday to contest the pole vault for the Falcons.

Central Washington’s HarLee Ortega’s long jump performance proved to be her undoing, as she fouled on her first two attempts, before staying alive with a jump of 17-0.5 (5.19m).

Despite a personal best in the javelin of 118-10 (36.23m), and a solid time of 2:24.30 in the 800, Ortega couldn’t overcome the hole she put herself in during the long jump, ultimately finishing 11th with 4904 points.

In other finals, Maddie Taylor of Western Washington finished in a tie for 13th in the women’s high jump, clearing a best of 5-4.5 (1.64m).

Central’s Mariyah Vongsaveng advanced to the finals in the 100 hurdles, running 13.97.

Complete day 2 results of the NCAA D2 championships are available here.

NOTE:  The NCAA, and the sports information offices of the University of Washington, Central Washington, and Sacramento State contributed to this report.