Bears In Third, Fifth After Day Two

Anna Purchase was one of two Bears to earn podium finishes on Saturday.

T&F5/13/2023 10:14 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Purchase, Turner Earn Pac-12 Podium Finishes

WALNUT – California track & field closed out the second day of the Pac-12 Championships in good shape, adding another two podium finishes to its total and qualifying six additional athletes to Sunday’s finals. Currently, Cal’s women are third in the standings with 33 points, while the men rank fifth with 24 points.
 
The women’s hammer throw, a standout event for the Golden Bears as of late, featured another set of powerful performances. Senior Anna Purchase earned her second Pac-12 podium finish, the Bears’ first of the day and third of the competition, with her throw of 68.38m (224-4). Freshman Audrey Jacobs made the final and scored for the Bears after launching the hammer to a fifth-place distance of 61.10m (200-5), a mark that ranks ninth in program history.
 
Both of Cal’s shot putters followed suit with scoring performances in the men’s contest as junior Jeff Duensing recorded a fifth-place put of 18.94m (62-1.75) to improve his own program No. 7 mark while classmate Jake Porter recorded his own PR at 18.27m/59-11.25 to finish seventh for the Bears. The next event, the men’s 110m hurdles preliminary, was notable due to all three Cal entries moving on to the finals: sophomore Di’Niko Bates improved his personal best by .17 seconds to finish in 13.88, second in his heat and good for an automatic qualification, while seniors Riley Hunt and Hakim McMorris posted qualifying times of 14.01 (another PR) and 14.06, respectively. McMorris then returned to the long jump pit, where he had been competing before taking a quick break to run the hurdles, and posted a wind-aided leap of 7.58m/24-10.5 to finish fifth and add to the Bears’ point total.
 
Although she had to miss Cal’s commencement ceremony back in Berkeley, senior Jada Hicks nonetheless created an incredible memory of her own on Saturday as she improved her program No. 3 100m hurdles time for the second straight meet, racing to a finish of 13.18 in the Pac-12 preliminary and earning her an automatic berth to tomorrow’s final. Two further qualifiers followed in the 100m dash, with sophomore David Foster posting a wind-aided time of 10.30 on the…