EUGENE, Ore. -- Washington State's Alissa Brooks-Johnson captured sixth place in the women's heptathlon Saturday at the NCAA Track & Field Championships amid cool temperatures, driving rains and swirling winds at Hayward Field on the Oregon campus in Eugene.
 
Brooks-Johnson, a redshirt senior from Doty, Wash., scored 5,789 points, a mere five points behind fifth place. Wisconsin senior Georgia Ellenwood won the heptathlon with 6,146 points.
 
The three-time Pac-12 heptathlon champion (2015, 2017, and 2018) and 2017 All-American, Brooks-Johnson started Saturday in 11th place. She long jumped 18-feet 9 1/4 inches (5.72m) while running into a 4.0 meters per second headwind. Her long jump was the 12th-farthest of the day.
 
She threw the javelin a season-best 140-7 (42.87m), accomplished on her third and last attempt which was eighth-best among the remaining 20 competitors.
 
Brooks-Johnson was in eighth-place going into the seventh and final event. She ran the 800m in a time of 2 minutes 15.69 seconds, the fifth-fastest time of the event, to garner enough points to move up to sixth place.
 
Brooks-Johnson placed sixth at the 2017 NCAA Championships.
 
THEY SAID:
Wayne Phipps, WSU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field said, "A gutsy performance by Alissa today! She has battled with pneumonia for a few weeks and for her to compete at that level this weekend was amazing. At one point during the competition she was all the way back in 17th but she continued to compete hard and was rewarded with back-to-back first team All-America honors."
 
Alissa Brooks-Johnson, WSU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field said, "The two-day heptathlon competition wasn't what I had envisioned for myself, performance-wise. The toughest event I had was definitely the high jump. Hurdles and the 200m were also tough but high jump is such a mental game for me. I felt very confident leading up to day one of the heptathlon, however fell a little short. Once I started the heptathlon, I knew it was going to be more of a mental grind then anything. I am proud of myself for pushing through any weakness and doubt I had during the competition. Even though my marks and times weren't what I had expected, I am very proud of my season and accomplishments."
 
NOTEWORTHY:

• Brooks-Johnson's 5789 points is her third-best in her collegiate career of 10 heptathlons
• Brooks-Johnson's All-America honors: Heptathlon - 2017 and 2018 First Team; 2015 Honorable Mention; 400m Hurdles - 2015 Honorable mention; Indoor Pentathlon - 2018 Second Team
• Thursday, Kaili Keefe placed 16th in the women's 1500m with a PR of 4:15.39 (second-best in WSU all-time) and Stephanie Cho placed 20th in the women's 400m hurdles
• Wednesday, Brock Eager placed 14th in the men's hammer, Sander Moldau placed tied for 17th in the men's pole vault, and Chandler Teigen finished 24th in the men's 1500m semifinals