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Brian Fay upsets defending champion Charles Hicks to win Pac-12 10000m title...


WALNUT, California--Washington's Brian Fay (Washington Athletics photo) used a 54-plus final 400 to dethrone Stanford's Charles Hicks as the conference champion in the 10000 meters to cap the first day of competition at the Pac-12 Track & Field Championships at Hilmer Lodge Stadium on the campus of Mt. San Antonio College.

Competing on the grounds of the famed Mt. SAC Relays, Fay, who had not run a 10000 on the track this season, bided his time, but was within striking distance of both Hicks and Cardinal teammate Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau, who were doing much of the work.

With 2000 meters to go, Hicks picked up the pace, dropping four consecutive laps of 66 seconds, making it a two-man race between Hicks, the British international, and Fay from Ireland.

Fay pounced on the backstretch opening up a 5 meter gap entering the home stretch, but Hicks battled back, closing all but two meters, with Fay getting the win in 28:24.90 to Hicks' 28:25.12 to become the first Husky to win the 10000 since David Bazzi in 2001.

Beaudoin-Rousseau was well back in third at 28:43.98.

Courtesy of UW Athletics, here's the final lap:


The Huskies' Leo Daschbach was seventh in 29:58.04, and Washington State's Brian Barsaiya got the final point in eighth at 30:08.32.

In other men's finals, the Huskies' Chandler Ault finished second in the javelin, throwing 227-10 (69.45m), as Arizona's Jared O'Riley threw a personal best of 235-6 (71.79m) to take the win.

The Dawgs' Jack Olsen (216-6/66.00m) and Brady Gockel (204-6/62.33m) finished fifth and sixth.

In the meet's first final, Washington's Jayden White finished fourth in the hammer with a throw of 222-6 (67.82m).

There were two women's finals contested, as the Huskies' Andrea Markezich finished second in the 10000, running 33:14.04, with teammate Naomi Smith missing a scoring spot by one place, finishing ninth in 33:43.05.

In the javelin, Ida Eikeng finished fourth after completing the first day of competition in the heptathlon, throwing 169-3 (51.59m). Tanya Simora was seventh at 156-6 (47.71m), and Saydi Orange was eighth at 155-10 (47.50m).

Eikeng leads the heptathlon with a first day score of 3778 points, 38 points ahead of defending champion Allie Jones of USC.

The Norwegian set a personal best in the 100 hurdles, running 13.26, then cleared 5-7.75 (1.72m) in the high jump.

She won the shot put with a throw of 47-2.5 (14.39m), then ran 23.87 in the 200.

On the day, Eikeng finished second in every event except the shot put.

Former Seattle Pacific standout Renick Meyer of Washington State stands eleventh with a first day score of 2760 points, running 14.38 in the 100 hurdles, clearing 4-10.25 (1.48m) in the high jump, throwing the shot 30-0.75 (9.16m), and running the 200 in 26.42.

The Husky trio of Jami Schlueter, Ollie Thorner, and Bruno Comin Pescador occupy the top three spots in the decathlon after day 1.

Schlueter won the first two events of the day, running 10.70 in the 100, and going 23-7.25 (7.19m) in the long jump to finish with a first day score of 4004 points.

Thorner finished second in the high jump with a best of 6-4.25 (1.94m), and had a pair of thirds in the 100 (10.96) and the 400 (49.65) to end the day with 3946, 58 points behind Schlueter.

Comin Pescador won the day's final event, the 400 in 49.49, then had a pair of thirds in the shot put, throwing 46-4.25 (14.13m), and in the high jump, where he cleared 6-3.25 (1.91m).

Washington State's Lee Walburn, who was the NAIA champion in this event at Carroll/Montana, stands ninth at the break with 3631 points.

In notable prelims, Washington advanced six of seven entries in the men's 1500, with Nathan Green and Luke Houser the top two qualifiers at 3:43.07, and 3:46.24, respectively, as the duo were heat winners.

WSU's Zach Stallings was second in the heat won by Houser, running 3:46.96.

Sophie O'Sullivan was the top qualifier in the women's 1500, running 4:16.29, and Anna Gibson was second in her heat in 4:19.05, with Madison Heisterman missing a qualifying spot, running 4:20.72 to finish eighth in heat one, as both time qualifiers to Sunday's finals came from her heat.

The men's 400 hurdles final is shaping up as a Washington/Washington State dual, as defending champ Cass Elliott led qualifiers with his 51.27 to win heat 2, while Washington State's Jared McAlvay won heat 1 in 51.46.

Washington's Matthew Wilkinson (52.67 in heat 2), and Jonathan Birchman (52.78 in heat 1) were both automatic qualifiers for Sunday's final, as each placed second in their heats.

Mackenzie Fletcher (59.11) and Jada Van Staten (59.89) of Washington State both advanced to Sunday's finals in the women's 400 hurdles, with Fletcher finishing second in her heat, and Van Staten advancing on time.

No Huskies or Cougars advanced to Sunday's finals in the men's and women's 200.

After the first day of competition, Washington holds the lead in both the men's and women's competition.

The UW men hold a 32-20 lead over Arizona after three of 21 events scored, while the Husky women have a 16-15 lead over Colorado and Utah after two events.

The meet resumes Saturday at 11:30am with the decathlon 110 hurdles. The first field event is the women's hammer at 12:30pm, and the first track event is at 4 pm with the men's 110 hurdles qualifying.

The Pac-12 Network and pac-12.com will televise and stream the meet live.


paulmerca.blogspot.com will be on site in Walnut to cover the final two days of competition.

NOTE: The Pac-12 Conference and the sports information offices of the University of Washington and Washington State University contributed to this report.

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