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DyeStat.com – News – 1-2 Finishes Are Theme Of The Day At Pac-12 Championships

DyeStat.com - News - 1-2 Finishes Are Theme Of The Day At Pac-12 Championships

Washington Men and Women Both Lead Heading Into Sunday’s Final Day At Mt. SAC

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

The Pac-12 Conference Championships began to take clearer shape on Saturday at Mt. SAC’s Hilmer Lodge Stadium as dynamic pairs collected points in big chunks for their respective teams. 

The Washington women got a rare first-place tie in the pole vault, where Sara Borton and Nastassja Campbell both cleared 14-3.50 with the the same number of misses and shared 18 points. 

The Huskies are the first team to 60 points — on both the women’s and men’s sides — heading into Sunday’s final day, where 13 of the 21 events will be scored. The men are sitting on 68 points and the women have 60.5. 

INTERVIEWS | RESULTS

Oregon State duo Grace Fetherstonhaugh and Kaylee Mitchell made history for the Beavers with a 1-2 finish in the women’s steeplechase as the both pulled away from Washington’s Kayley DeLay, last year’s NCAA runner-up at Yale. 

Fetherstonhaugh became the first woman from Oregon State to win a Pac-12 individual title, running 9:39.23 for the third-fastest time in meet history. And Mitchell’s 9:45.21 is the fifth-fastest in meet history. 

DeLay hung in for third in 9:54.77. 

The Washington men got a 1-3-4 finish in the men’s decathlon to score 21 points. Oliver Thorner, of Great Britain, used his 1,500-meter prowess to overcome a 66-point gap in the final event. He poured energy into the first two laps and ran away from the field to run 4:22.35 and the effort move him to first with 7,761 points. 

Oregon’s Rafael Raap was second with 7,695 points and the Huskies’ Bruno Comin Pescador (7,611) and Jami Schlueter (7,545) were next. 

Washington did have one thing go awry, and it prevented the possibility of another 18-point total in the men’s steeplechase. Joe Waskom, the reigning NCAA champion in the 1,500 meters, was leading Saturday’s final when he lost a shoe in the middle of the race. 

Rather than jeopardize his season and risk injuring his foot, Waskom had to step off the track. 

His teammate, Ed Trippas, a Princeton transfer who was fifth at the NCAA Championships last year, went to the lead and ensured Washington would take 10 points from the event. Trippas ran away from UCLA’s Peter Herold and Oregon’s Alex Slenning to win in 8:37.26. 

USC’s men got a pair of 1-2 finishes in field events. 

First, in the long jump, Johnny Brackins and CJ Stevenson both jumped 8 meters in the long jump to cash in 18 points. Brackins produced his…

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