Elliott rolls to the plate, vaults and jumpers rise

SEATTLE Cass Elliott showed the strength and endurance that made him the Pac-12 400m hurdles champion last spring and applied it to the 800m tonight, breaking Washington’s indoor school record in the event as one of the biggest highlights of Saturday’s action. UW Invitational.

In addition to Elliott’s school record, the Huskies had eight event wins, eleven more runner-up finishes and particularly outstanding scores in the pole vault pit and long jump runway inside Dempsey.

Elliott has focused on the indoor 800m last season, helping the Husky track medley relay in the 800m and then moving to the 400m hurdles outdoors. Early runs this year show he has a shot at an individual NCAA indoor qualifier, as he ran the 600m record two weeks ago at Dempsey, and followed that up today with a 1:47.22 to break Izaic Yorks’ 2016 indoor school record of 1:47.89. Yorks also broke his school record in the mile with four of UW’s eight under four miles Friday night, making it a tough weekend at the top of the former Husky All-American’s records.

Elliott is now ranked No. 4 in the NCAA this season.

The women’s 800m also produced some fireworks like the Pac-12 Champ Carly Thomas ran the distance for the first time this season and won in 2:03.64, which tied for sixth in the NCAA rankings. Right behind Thomas was a junior Marlena Preghwho PR improved by more than a second with a time of 2:04.95, moving her to No. 2 in UW history behind Thomas and No. 14 in the NCAA.Freshman Chloe Foerster also kept pace with the veterans to finish 6th in 2:06.12, now the 6th time in school history that he competed in the 800m for the first time in varsity. Six of the seven best women’s 800m times in school history are held by current Huskies.

Guys, don’t hurt him, he’s an 18 foot vaulter now! ????

Jacob Englertwo???? day and third this season launched him third in UW history at 18-1 1/4 with only NCAA champions Brad Walker and Scott Roth ahead of him ??

Which first two meet??#GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/42LtljyN2M

– Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) January 29, 2023

The three transfers continued to make a huge impact for the Huskies in the pole vault in just their first month in purple. The men’s vault was up first and Jacob Engler cleared two more career bests, making it three PRs now, as the defending Pac-12 Champ crossed the Apple Cup lines from Pullman. Englar first made it 17-11 on the third attempt, then picked it up again by making the third attempt 18-1, the first 18-foot mark of her career. That moves Englar to No. 3 in UW’s storied vault history, with only NCAA champions Brad Walker and Scott Roth having gone higher indoors, and Englar now has a better indoor PR than 2016 NCAA indoor champion Jax Thoirs. He is also now ranked 10th nationally.

The new Huskies in the women’s pole vault Nastassja Campbell and Sarah Borton faced each other back-to-back, both cleared 14 feet once again, this time improving their season bests to 14-2. That puts Borton and Campbell in a tie for seventh in the NCAA this season and fifth in school history.

Freshman duo Sarah Ferguson and Avril Wilson Continue to attack the high bars as well, as both went 13-5 and had great attempts at 13-11. Let’s add the reports from Friday evening Ashleigh Helms (13-5) and Holland shoes (13-1) and the Huskies had six women over 13 feet in one meet and two over 14 feet. That’s fine for Amanda and Hana Moll, as the UW commits and high schoolers of record placed the top two in the competition today, with Hana clearing 14-10 and Amanda clearing 14-6.

The Huskies won both long jumps with new top-10 marks Ida Eikeng and Prestin Artis. Eikeng managed to find another top-10 list he wasn’t already on, as he had a career-best indoor long jump and was just inches away from an outdoor PR as he went 19-7 to earn the win and move into a tie for sixth in school history.

Artis posted another outright PR in his second Dempsey meet since joining the team. He went 25-2 today to keep himself in the hunt for an NCAA Indoor bid. That puts him alone in fourth place all-time in school history. The UW men went 1-2-3 in the long jump, as Tim Luebert had a big PR with a jump of 23-2. Decathlete Jami Schlueter also jumped PR 22-11 .

Sprint highlights included a 1-2 finish from the start Jonathan Birchman and Matthew Wilkinson in the men’s 400 meters, with Birchman having a lifetime best time of 47.76. Freshman Anna Terrell cut two seconds off his 400m time of 57.78 two weeks ago to finish sixth. In the women’s 200 meters Danielle Hunter was seventh with a season’s best time of 25.17 and Rhonda Newton was 11th in SB with 25.77.

Distance events brought more top-10 marks as Sophie O’Sullivan ran the first 3 kilometers of his career indoors and finished 6th in school history with a time of 9:03.91. O’Sullivan has now written his name into the Husky record books in the 800m, mile and 3,000m so far this indoor season. Andrea Markezich ran 9:28.82 and Naomi Smith at 9:29.30, while freshman Sophie Nordenholz raced an unattached but impressive 9:24.69.

Long jump?? today

Ida found one Top 10 she didn’t already have and fixed it. His winning jump today moved him to sixth all-time.

Prestin, Tim and Jami went 1-2-3? in the men’s long jump, all with a PR#GoHuskies x #HuskyPRs pic.twitter.com/2Hx52HNGrJ

– Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) January 29, 2023

MaKayla Kelby earned herself a second straight victory in the women’s shot put today, throwing 53-7, while the redshirt freshman Kaia Tupu-Etelä finished second with a score of 52-11. Eikeng’s shot was 44-3 for sixth. In the Men’s Shot, Schlueter had a big PR of 45-8 for his long jump PR. Ollie Thorner also had a shot PR of 43-0.