Huskies get eleven wins & sweep team titles at Jim Bush Legends meet at UCLA...

LOS ANGELES--When the Pac-12 track & field championships occur in the City of Angels in mid-May, one of the biggest matchups could be the men's discus featuring a pair of Arizona high school standouts.

Over the weekend at the Willie Williams Classic in Tucson, Arizona State's Turner Washington, a product of Tucson's Canyon Del Oro HS, spun the platter 210-9 (64.23m) to take the collegiate lead one week after winning the NCAA indoor title in the shot put.

At the Jim Bush Legends meet hosted by UCLA Wednesday afternoon at Drake Stadium, University of Washington junior Elijah Mason (photo courtesy UW Athletics), the reigning Pac-12 champion, opened up the 2021 campaign by launching the discus 191-2 (58.27m) to take the victory in that event, and help lead the Huskies to a sweep of both the men's and women's meets.

The throw from the graduate of Desert Vista HS in Casa Grande, Arizona is the fourth furthest mark so far this season, and sets up a potential clash between the two Arizona prep products in seventeen days at the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson.

The mark set by the 2019 All-American was his best season opener, eclipsing his previous season opening mark of 184-4 (56.19m) set two years ago at the Stanford Invitational. 

In the 15-event competition that excluded all running events 800 meters and up, Washington won the men's competition by a 157-126-102 count over UCLA and UC Irvine, and the women's team competition by a 176-149-115 score over both the Bruins and the Anteaters.

Much as he was a force this winter in the weight throw, freshman Jayden White will be one to watch, as the Everett native threw 208-9 (63.63m) to take the victory in that event and become the fifth best performer in school history. His throw puts him inside the NCAA top 20.

On the women's side, Kathleen Horn of the Dawgs set a new UW freshman record in the javelin, throwing 162-3 (49.46m) to win that event. The previous class record belonged to Tiffany Zahn, who threw 157-9 (48.08m) in 2003. That mark puts her inside the top 20 on the current NCAA Division I descending order list.

One of the best marks on the track Wednesday came from multi-event specialist Ida Eiking in the women's 100 hurdles, where she clocked a barely wind-aided 13.55 (+2.1 MPS) to win the event, leading four Huskies across the line in the top five.

Eiking also took the win in the long jump, stretching the tape to 19-5.5 (5.93m, +1.7 MPS), and finished  sixth in the shot put, throwing 42-0 (12.80m).

Grad transfer Julian Body won both the 110 and 400 hurdles, running 14.22 and 52.62.

Other Husky winners on the day included Dalton Sugg in the men's javelin (200-8/61.16m); Olivia Ribera in the 400 (55.39); a tie for first between Ashleigh Helms and Makenna Barton (12-9.5/3.90m) in the pole vault; and Lauren Heggen (40-8.25/12.40m) in the triple jump, giving the team eleven individual wins on the day.

UW associate head coach Toby Stevenson said, "We were super happy all-around with the performances. We really had some highlights. In general this was a great meet we're going to be able to build off of for future outdoor competitions. Kathleen Horn started with a freshman record and it ended with Elijah in the discus and we had the whole team around hooting and hollering."

Action continues for the UW track team Thursday, as the distance crew heads to Raleigh, North Carolina for the three-day Raleigh Relays hosted by NC State at the Paul Derr Track Facility with at least 70 schools represented.

All of Washington's entries will be spread amongst the 800-meters, 1500-meters, 5000-meters, and 10,000-meters, with several athletes initially entered in multiple events. Thursday will feature the men's 1500-meters, the men's 5000-meters, and the women's 10,000-meters. Then Friday will reverse that, with the women's 1500- and 5000-meters, and the men's 10k races. Saturday will wrap up with 800-meter competition.

Washington's release is available here.

The results of Wednesday's Jim Bush Legends meet is available here.

COUGS, ZAGS & EAGLES COMPETE AT WHITWORTH INVITATIONAL...

Washington State, Gonzaga, and Eastern Washington won't have very far to travel, as all three schools will compete Thursday and Friday at the Whitworth University Invitational in Spokane at Boppell Track on the Whitworth campus.

Thursday's events consists of the first day of both the decathlon and the heptathlon starting at 11:45 am, with the men's and women's hammer, javelin, and 5000 along with the women's pole vault contested starting at 2:30pm. The main portion of the meet is on Friday beginning with the field events at 2:30pm, and 3:20pm for the running events.

The start lists for the Whitworth Invitational are available here.

NOTE: The sports information office at UCLA, the University of Washington, and Whitworth University contributed to this report.

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