SEATTLE -- Washington State's CJ Allen repeated as the men's intermediate hurdles champion, two years after winning his first title, and Thane Pierson claimed his first high jump title Sunday at the Pac-12 Track & Field Championships at Husky Track in Seattle.
CJ Allen, a junior from Allyn, Wash., won the men's 400m hurdles in a time of 50.36 seconds, well beyond his PR time of 50.16 run last month. Allen won his prelim heat Saturday in a time of 51.01, the fastest time of the 17 competitors. Allen won the 2014 Pac-12 men's intermediate hurdles title as a freshman but injury in 2015 kept him from competing. This is the sixth men's 400m hurdles conference title for WSU in the past nine years.
After the race Allen said, “We just really wanted to focus on putting a good race together. The training had been incredible the past few weeks: we're strong enough, fast enough, and it was a matter of putting it together on the right day and I think we had a good rhythm today. I pride myself on working hard all the time, (winning the conference title again) means a great deal. It is definitely one of those things and to really compete again and see the progress we've made. We're very excited for the future.”
Thane Pierson, a senior from Naches, Wash., won the men's high jump with a leap of 7-feet, 3 inches (2.21m), equaling his PR height and seventh-best in school history, leaped last month in Pullman. Pierson, USC's Randall Cunningham and UW's Carson Murray all cleared 7-0 1/2 (2.15m) but Cunningham took the lead with a clearance on his first go at 7-0 1/2 (2.15m) while Pierson and UW's Carson Murray both needed two tries to clear the height. With the bar at 7-1 3/4 (2.18m) Pierson moved to the top of the standings by clearing on his second attempt while Cunningham needed a third attempt to clear and Murray failed to clear the bar. At 7-3 (2.21m), Pierson sailed over the bar on his first attempt and Cunningham was not successful in his three attempts. WSU freshman Peyton Fredrickson (Vancouver, Wash.) tied for seventh place after high jumping 6-8 (2.03m).
When asked what winning the conference title meant to him Pierson said, “It's an honor for sure. The Pac-12 is definitely one of my favorite meets. I never really performed as well as I liked in the past and I just tried to get as ready as I could this year. I tied my PR, but I definitely think I have a couple more bars in me this year. The top mark in the nation is 7-5 and I'd like to get to 7-6.”
Terrance Chambers (senior, Federal Way, Wash.) finished fifth in the men's 200m in a time of 21.40 two hours after the WSU men's 400m relay of Zach Smith, Ja'Maun Charles, Chambers and Jonnie Green but passed the baton out of the exchange zone and were disqualified in the final after running the third-best time in the prelims of 40.41.
Liz Harper (junior, Missoula, Mont.) ran a season-best time of 58.20 for fourth place in the women's 400m hurdles. She came back onto the track at the end of the day to anchor the 4x400m relay to a fourth-place finish. The Cougar women's relay team of Dominique Keel, Christiana Ekelem, Regyn Gaffney and Harper ran a time of 3 minutes, 38.17 seconds.
At the Pac-12 Championships, Harper placed third in the heptathlon, fourth in the high jump, the intermediate hurdles and on the 1600m relay squad, to contribute 21 of the Cougars 45 points.
The men's 4x400m relay squad of Ray Littles, Allen, Dino Dodig and Matthew Swanson ran a time of 3:12:44, just over the season-best time of 3:12.13, for sixth place.
Cougar women scored twice in the triple jump with Greer Alsop (redshirt sophomore, Invercargill, New Zealand) taking fifth place with a leap of 40-2 1/4 (12.25m) and Kayla Warren (senior, Seattle) finishing sixth with a mark of 39-5 1/4 (12.02m). Kiana Davis took 12th with her mark of 38-7 3/4 (11.78m).
The Oregon women won the team title, for the eighth consecutive time, with 185 points followed by USC 111.50, Stanford 90, Washington 82, UCLA 66.50, Colorado 66, Arizona 62, Washington State 45, Arizona State 41, California 39.50, Oregon State 23.50 and Utah 3. The Ducks also won the men's team title, for the 10th straight time, with 155.60 points followed by Washington 122, UCLA 94.20, Arizona State 83, USC 75, Stanford 74, Colorado 63, Arizona 57, California 50.60, and Washington State 41.60.
Other Cougars competing Sunday included: Devon Bortfeld, women's 5000m (17:06.96 - 22nd); Katelyn Frost, women's pole vault (no height); Kaitlin Krouse, women's discus (145-10 /44.44m - 12th); Chrisshnay Brown, women's discus (136-2 /41.51m - 17th); Katie Wardsworth, women's hammer (177-7 /54.14m - 9th); Michael Williams, men's 5000m (14:23.25 - 20th); Sam Levora, men's 5000m (14:44.94 - 31st); Robby Flores, men's triple jump (47-5 /14.45m - 10th); Adam Mahama, men's discus (154-9 /47.18m - 17th); and Cameron Brink, men's discus (149-7 /45.60m - 23rd).
“We got off to a slow start but finished strong capped off by two Pac-12 champions in Thane and CJ,” WSU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Wayne Phipps said. “The team competed very well and responded well to adversity. Outside of our Pac-12 champions, we had a number of other outstanding performances; Kiana placing second in the high jump despite horrible conditions and Liz Harper with a third place, two fourth place finishes plus anchoring a great 4x4. It was great to see our two senior distance runners, CharLee Linton and Forrest Shaffer, score in two extremely competitive events as well as fellow seniors Kelsie Taylor, Terrance Chambers and Kayla Warren. We have set-up ourselves very well for a strong performance for the NCAA West Region first round and beyond.”
The next competition in the 2016 collegiate track and field season is the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds, May 26-28, in Lawrence, Kan. Cougars who have achieved marks that are among the top 48 best in the region are eligible to compete.