STANFORD, Calif. -- Washington State freshman Sander Moldau won the men's pole vault Sunday at the Pac-12 Track & Field Championships at Cobb Track and Angell Field in Stanford. The WSU men's team was seventh with 56.5 points and the women's team was 10th with 26 points.
 
Moldau, from Rakvere, Estonia, cleared 17-feet 2 1/4 inches (5.24m) to win the pole vault, the eighth time a WSU competitor has won the conference title in this event but the first time since 1995 when Christos Pallakis won. Moldau needed only one attempt at the three bars of 16-6 1/2 (5.04m), 16-10 1/4 (5.14m) and his winning height of 17-2 1/4 (5.24m). He missed on all three of his attempts at a final height of 17-7 (5.36m).
 
Nick Johnson (sophomore, Spokane, Wash.) led a trio of Cougars men scoring in the 110m hurdles. Johnson was the runner-up with a wind-aided PR time of 13.84 seconds with Christapherson Gran (junior, Lynnwood, Wash.) fifth with a wind-aided PR of 14.14, and Abu Kamara (redshirt senior, Kent, Wash.) seventh in a time of 15.50w but was later disqualified. Grant came back later and scored in the men's 400m hurdles, with a time of 52.29 for eighth place in the final after running a PR time of 51.94 in the prelims.
 
Brock Eager (redshirt junior, Renton, Wash.) was not able to repeat as the men's hammer champion, finishing second by a mere 21 inches. Eager threw 218-feet 1 inch (66.47m) and USC's Nathan Bultman threw 219-10 (67.01m) to win the title. Amani Brown (redshirt junior, Des Moines, Wash.) finished eighth with a throw of 199-8 (60.86m).
 
In the men's high jump, Peyton Fredrickson (junior, Ridgefield, Wash.) cleared the high jump bar at 6-11 (2.11m) for fifth place and Max English (sophomore, Kingston, Wash.) soared to a lifetime-best of 6-9 3/4 (2.08m) to tie for sixth place.
 
Alissa Brooks-Johnson (redshirt senior, Doty, Wash.), the heptathlon champion, took eighth place in the women's 100m hurdles with a non-wind-aided PR time of 13.65 after running a PR of 13.60w in the prelims. Later in the afternoon in the 400m hurdles, Stephanie Cho (junior, Vancouver, B.C. Canada) took fifth in a time of 58.98 after running a PR of 58.95 in the prelims, and Brooks-Johnson scored in eighth in a time of 59.80.
 
Zach Smith (senior, Bremerton, Wash.) captured seventh place in the men's 200m dash in a wind-aided PR time of 21.12w after clocking in a PR time of 21.14 in the prelims.
 
Robby Flores (junior, El Paso, Texas) took seventh place in the triple jump with a leap of 48-11 3/4 (14.93m).
 
In the short relays Sunday, the men's 400m relay of Smith, Brandon Bains, Ray Littles and Ethan Gardner took fourth place with a time of 40.68 while the Cougars women's 4x100m relay of Jordyn Tucker, Regyn Gaffney, Tierney Silliman and Brooks-Johnson took seventh place with a time of 46.97. The men's 4x400m relay squad of Grant, Littles, Justin Janke, and Jake Ulrich took seventh in a time of 3:18.51.

THEY SAID:
Wayne Phipps, WSU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field said, "Although the overall team placing is not what we had hoped, we did have some outstanding individual performances. Sander winning the vault as a true freshman was incredible. Brock Eager coming back from a serious shoulder injury to finish second and just missing winning was also incredible. Nick Johnson ran a great race in the sprint hurdles to lead us on the track. I was also very impressed with Chris Grant scoring in both hurdles and Zach Smith running a great race out of lane nine to score for us in the 200m. Peyton and Max competed extremely well in the high both narrowly missing their next bars. Alissa was as tough as ever scoring in both hurdles despite still being sick from last weekend. Stephanie Cho had a huge breakthrough breaking 59 twice this weekend and finishing an impressive fifth."
 
Brad Walker, WSU Assistant Coach/Jumps said, "Sander was definitely the most composed vaulter in the field today. The winds were really gusty and changing directions frequently, but Sander had no problems committing to the jump and had no misses until after he had won the competition. It's pretty rare for a freshman to be so solid in a big championship, but there was never a point where I didn't feel like he was in control of the competition."
 
NOTEWORTHY:

• Team scoring is 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for places first through eighth
• Women's team scores: USC 170, Oregon 154, Stanford 119, Colorado 76, Arizona State 68, UCLA 57, Arizona 44, California 40, Washington 32, Washington State 26, Oregon State 17, Utah 15
• Men's team scores: Oregon 174, Stanford 125, USC 118, Arizona 91, Colorado 72, California 67, Washington State 56.5, Washington 42, UCLA 38, Arizona State 31.5
• The next competition is the NCAA West Region Preliminary Rounds, May 24-26, at Sacramento State

Sander Moldau has attempted 3 bars and has cleared 3 bars! Leads pole vault! #GoCougs #Pac12TF pic.twitter.com/77bVEyGHu9

— WSU Track & Field (@WSUCougarTF) May 13, 2018

OTHER WSU RESULTS FROM MAY 13 AT PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
MEN
1500m - Chandler Teigen 11th (3:52.00)
5000m - Michael Williams 13th (14:30.61), Kyler Little 22nd (14:52.09), Colton Johnsen 24th (14:56.66), John Whelan DNF
High Jump - Keelan Halligan 12th (1.98m/6-6)
Discus - Tyler Jackson 13th (49.01m/160-9)
Hammer - Wyatt Meyring 10th (59.67m/195-9)
 
WOMEN
1500m - Kaili Keefe 12th (4:34.59)
5000m - Devon Bortfeld 16th (16:57.51)
4x400m Relay - 11th Stephanie Cho, Marlow Schulz, Zorana Grujic, Jelena Grujic (3:53.91)
Triple Jump - Greer Alsop 12th (11.98m/39-3 3/4), Brittni Williams 15th (PR 11.77m/38-7 1/2), Oyinlola Akinlosotu 16th (11.59m/38-0 1/4)
Discus - Kaitlin Krouse 15th (45.45m/149-1), Chrisshnay Brown 19th (40.81m/133-11)