Dawgs win Pac-12 men's track crown...
WALNUT, California--When runners exit the final turn and run to the finish line, they see in their sights a sign on the wall of Hilmer Lodge Stadium that says, "WHERE THE WORLD'S BEST ATHLETES COMPETE".
The Washington men's track and field team were worthy of that title, as the Dawgs emerged Sunday after three days of competition on the campus of Mt. San Antonio College as Pac-12 champions, collecting the first team title in school history since the iteration of the AAWU/Pac-8/10/12 in 1960, though according to noted track and field historian Jack Pfeifer, the Huskies won the 1928 Pacific Coast Conference championship in Missoula, Montana.
Washington took the team title, scoring 151 points, followed by USC with 137, and Stanford with 96.
Washington State was tenth with 40 points.
The Huskies borrowed a page from the 2003 Stanford track team that had on its squad a middle distance runner by the name of Andy Powell (Paul Merca photo)
That Stanford team was the first in Pac-12 history to win individual titles in the 800, 1500, steeplechase, 5000 and 10000 meters en route to winning the team title, and Sunday, the Husky track team with Andy Powell at the helm, followed in the footsteps of that Cardinal squad.
With wins by Brian Fay in the 10000 Friday night, and Ed Trippas in the steeplechase Saturday, the Dawgs got wins from Nathan Green in the 1500, who made a late race move to run 3:42.22 to pass Ky Robinson of Stanford, who was second in 3:42.99, just ahead of Zach Stallings of Washington State's 3:44.34.
They were helped by a sixth place finish by Aidan Ryan in 3:47.18, and a seventh place finish by NCAA indoor mile champ Luke Houser's 3:47.69.
Not to be overlooked, Cass Elliott defended his 400 hurdles crown, winning in 49.31 over the Cougars' Jared McAlvey who ran 50.23.
Jonathan Birchman was third in 50.79, and Matthew Wilkinson was fourth in 51.48.
In a race that had team implications, Washington grad student Sam Ellis won the 800 in a time of 1:46.77 over USC's 1:47.99, with Trojan teammate Josh Ligas taking seventh in 1:50.41.
Ligas got a valuable seventh place finish that closed the gap on the Huskies in the team race before the 200, which propelled the Trojans to the lead after a fifth and sixth place finish.
The coup de grace came in the 5000 meters, won by Brian Fay in 14:08.03, using the same burst in the last 800 meters.
With USC having no runners in the 5000, Washington needed ten points to clinch the team title, and Fay's win clinched it. Leo Daschbach finished eighth in 14:29.03 to slam the door shut.
The Dawgs got contributions from Elijah Mason in the discus with a third place finish (202-8/61.77m); Tim Luebbert with a third in the triple jump (49-7/15.11m); and defending pole vault champ Jacob Englar, who scored the final points of the meet with a second place finish at 17-9.25 (5.42m).
“A long time coming,” said Head Coach Andy Powell on the Pac-12 Networks broadcast. “When we took over five years ago, we told some of the freshmen that this was going to be our goal. Everyone believed it. It’s a super special day for everyone.”
“People that come to Washington, they want to be part of something special,” Powell said. “It’s a great academic school. The culture of our team and where we’ve been and where we’re going, people want to be a part of it. Today was special because it was not just one event group, it was a whole team effort. One person goes down, and other people step up. You can’t do it with a couple individuals, you have to have a great team.”
The women's recap will be posted later this evening, as we are en route home to Seattle.
NOTE: The Pac-12 Conference and the sports information office of the University of Washington contributed to this report.
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