Dawgs earn identical sixth place finishes in B1G Ten outdoor track & field debut...
EUGENE--On the final day of competition at the newly expanded seventeen-team Big Ten Track & Field Championships at Hayward Field, the country's most prestigious track and field stadium, the Washington women came home with two Big Ten titles, en route to a sixth place team finish Sunday afternoon, scoring 64 points, as pre-meet favorite USC won the title with 121 points to runner-up Oregon's 113.
The Washington men also finished sixth in the team race, scoring 72 points, as the host Oregon Ducks outperformed the pre-meet form chart to win with 110 points.
Husky senior Sophie O'Sullivan (Paul Merca photo), the Irish Olympian, emerged victorious over a field that included Silan Ayyildiz and Mia Barnett of Oregon.
After the field went through 300 meters in 52 seconds, O"Sullivan controlled things at the front, slowing the next 400 meters to about 73 seconds.
With one lap to go, Husky teammate Amina Maatoug went to the front, throwing a 66 second 400 before the big scramble on the last lap.
Ayyildiz, who is the NCAA indoor and outdoor mile record holder at 4:23.46 indoors and outdoors at 4:25.50, tried to go to the front, but was held off by O'Sullivan, who dropped a 58.41 last 400 to take the win in 4:11.66
Ayyildiz, the Oregon standout from Türkiye, finished in the second spot in 4:13.35, while Maatoug was fourth in 4:14.93.
Mia Cochran was tenth in 4:17.30, while Julia David-Smith was knocked down midway through the race, and finished twelfth in 4:36.65.
In the mixed zone, O'Sullivan, who raced this summer in Australia and the world indoor championships in China, said, "In the last race I ran, it was after I ran the 800, so I kind of went out a bit slower. I was sitting in the back and felt like I was too far back with a lap to go. So, this time I was trying to go to the front in the first 100. I wanted to let everyone go around me, so I could pick where I wanted to be. Then, no one ever went around me, so I could just stay there. If you’re not going that fast, you might as well have clear space to run.”
On her race strategy, she said, "I was kind of expecting someone to go fairly hard from around 600 or 800 meters out. That kind of tends to be the move from the Oregon girls, but they kind of left it late, which I wasn’t mad about. I was quite happy to just jog around for a bit longer and kick it in the last lap to close strong.”
While the 1500 was going on, the Moll sisters were in a battle in the pole vault with last year's NCAA outdoor champ Chloe Timburg of Rutgers.
Amanda Moll (Paul Merca photo) struggled early at her opening height of 14-0.5 (4.28m), needing three tries to clear, while sister Hana and Timburg made the bar on their first try.
All three needed two attempts to clear the next bar of 14-4.5 (4.38m).
Things got interesting at the next bar of 14-8.25 (4.48m), as the twins cleared the height on their third try, while Timburg was eliminated with three misses.
Hana, who had the lead after Timburg's elimination, needed three tries to clear 15-0.25 (4.58m), while Amanda got it in two to take the lead.
The twins raised the bar to 15-8.25 (4.78m), two centimeters and one inch above the collegiate outdoor all-time best that Amanda set two weeks ago at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson.
For the third time today, Amanda succeeded on a third-attempt. Hana was extremely close, as the bar wobbled on her third attempt and thought about staying up, but it ultimately dropped.
With the competition in hand, Amanda took three shots at 16-1.75 (4.92m), which would have been a personal best and the ultimate collegiate record which she holds at 16-1.25 (4.91m) from winning the Big Ten indoor in Indianapolis.
"I think just making those third attempt clearances count," said Amanda on what went right for her today. "I would have preferred not having to have third attempt clearances, but I did make the most of them."
Avril Wilson, Washington's third vaulter, finished seventh with a personal best 13-8.5 (4.18m).
NATHAN GREEN GETS SECOND IN THE 1500, AS HUSKY MEN FINISH SIXTH...
The only podium (top three) finish on the day for the Washington men came in the 1500 meters, as Nathan Green (Paul Merca photo) finished second in the 1500 behind Wisconsin's Adam Spencer.
Green was in striking distance, as Spencer, who was on Australia's Olympic team last year, tried to control the tempo and make it a tactical race, with Oregon's Simeon Birnbaum lurking.
Spencer won in 3:53.18. Green was just a step back in 3:53.25.
It was a mad dash as all of the top-six men closed the final 400-meters in under 52 seconds, with Green's 51.23 the fastest in the field.
Rhys Hammond was seventh in 3:54.81.
Doubling back from the 1500, Amina Maatoug and Julia David-Smith helped the chase group reel in Oregon's Diana Cherotich, the winner of Friday night's 10000 meters.
Despite coming off the 1,500-meters earlier in the day, Maatoug, just as she did at NCAA Indoors in her mile/3k double, showed no fatigue and no fear and she threw in a kick to pass Cherotich on the last lap and take the lead.
Maatoug shot to the lead with 250 to go, with Silan Ayyildiz of Oregon, who won the 1500 earlier in the meet, in hot pursuit.
Ayyildiz passed Maatoug on the inside down the final stretch for the win in 15:37.11 to 15:37.55, as both women were under the old meet record. David-Smith also powered home in a PR of 15:43.30 for fourth-place.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:
--In the men's 400 hurdles, Bodi Ligons of the Huskies finished fourth in 51.67, while Matthew Wilkinson was seventh in 52.15;
--The men's triple jump saw the Huskies get two scorers, as Trevontay Smith was fourth in 50-11 (15.52m), and Tim Luebbert was fifth with 50-5.25 (15.38m)
As a side note, the original winner, Jaren Holmes of USC, who leaped an apparent meet record of 53-1.75 (16.20m), was disqualified after a post-event random shoe check showed that his jumping shoes were over the World Athletics allowable stack height.
--In the men's 800, Kyle Reinheimer was fourth in 1:48.51, while Martin Barco was sixth in 1:49.06, as both moved up a place after Oregon's Koitatoi Kidali was disqualified;
--Competing in the first flight, Kaia Tupu-South of Washington finished fifth with an outdoor school record 56-10.25 (17.33m).
--Bellingham's Jacob Andrews of USC was fifth in the 400 in 46.11.
NOTE: The Big Ten and the sports information office of the University of Washington contributed to this report.
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