While the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ men’s track team finished fourth in the Pac-12 Championships Sunday, freshmen Jordan Geist, Maj Williams and a host of others gave coach Fred Harvey more than a hint of potentially good things to come.
Meanwhile, the UA women’s team finished seventh out of 12 teams and added some special moments to the season’s highlight reel.
After winning the shot put on Saturday, Jordan Geist captured a second Pac-12 title Sunday with a throw of 188 feet, 10 inches in the discus, his personal record. He became the conference’s first freshman to win both the discus and shot put.
Named male athlete of the Pac-12 meet, Geist also finished seventh in the hammer throw.
In the final event of the two-day competition, Williams blazed down the final 100 meters to pass Oregon and Stanford runners and win the 1,600 relay in 3:07.46.
People are also reading…
The three other relay runners — sophomore Zakee Washington, junior Daniel Egbo, and freshman Maksims Sincukovs — are all expected to return to the team next year.
In fact, of the 91 points scored by the UA men, 81 came from athletes scheduled to return next year.
Harvey said his freshman, sophomore and junior athletes expected to return next year “were top competitors here and with the recruits that we have signed, it gives us a great opportunity not only to do well in Pac-12 but on a national level.â€
For the 12th straight year, Oregon’s men squad won the Pac-12 championship.
However, the sprinter-rich USC women’s team upset Oregon for the conference title, snapping the Ducks’ nine-year winning streak.
Before running his relay leg, Sincukovs placed third in the 400-meter hurdles in 51.06. Last year, he was rated one of the world’s top runners under age 20 in his specialty.
Junior Grayson Fleming finished sixth in the hammer throw at 202-7. Geist was right behind at 202-1.
Another Wildcat freshman, Turner Washington, had been the favorite in the discus but he ended up in fifth with a throw of 178-5. Fleming rounded out a strong showing by the Wildcat throwers with an eighth in the disc at 170-1.
Williams, from Scottsdale, also kicked hard at the end of the individual 400-meter dash to edge out USC Rick Morgan. Williams ran 46.20 to Morgan’s 46.23. Williams also came through with a fifth place in the 200 meters.
In the high jump, sophomore Justice Summerset and junior Bryant O’Georgia placed third and fourth. Summerset cleared 7-0¼ and O’Georgia 6-11.
The only Wildcat male senior who placed high in the meet was Collins Kibet.
After leading most of the way in the 800 meters, he finished second in 1:50.42.
Redshirt sophomore Carlos Villarreal, who entered the meet with the conference’s third fastest 1,500 time, “just did not run well, according to Harvey. He finished seventh in 3:46.77.
In the women’s competition, senior Claire Green sped up from about ninth place with a couple of laps to go to finish second at 5,000 meters in 16:29.53.
Her race, like most of the long-distance races, started at a slow pace as runners jockeyed for tactical advantage.
Redshirt junior Tatum Waggoner put on a determined sprint at the end of her 400 race to finish fourth with her personal-best time of 51.89. Harvey called her performance “an important breakthrough.â€
Waggoner also anchored the women’s 400 relay team to fourth place in the 400-meter relay and a fifth in the 1,600 relays.
All of the male and female athletes whose performances are among the top 48 in the West will next compete in the NCAA West Preliminary Meet on May 24-26.
The UA men outscored ASU handily in the meet and the ASU women placed ahead of the UA women. That means the Territorial Cup series is now tied at 10-10. The winner of the UA-ASU baseball series will be the series winner for the year.
The scores for the men’s teams: Oregon 174, Stanford 125, USC 118, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ 91, Colorado 72 and Cal 67. USC won the women’s title with 170, followed by Oregon 154; Stanford 119, Colorado 76, ASU 68, UCLA 57 and ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, 44.
