After a weak start, Arizona freshman Jordan Geist came on strong Saturday to win the Pac-12 championship in shot put at Stanford.
Geist fouled on his first two attempts by stepping out of the shot put ring. His third toss placed him in third and qualified him for three more throws, on which he improved each time. He uncorked a final throw of 65-9¾ to defeat Cal’s McKay Johnson by more than a foot.
Geist’s performance highlighted Day 1 of the two-day conference finals for the Wildcats. The championships conclude today with Pac-12 TV coverage starting at 3 p.m.
The Wildcat men stood in sixth place after Saturday’s five final results. The UA women were tied for eighth with Oregon, which is ranked No. 2 in the nation.
Competing on their home track, the Stanford men led after six events with 48 points, followed by Oregon, 43, Colorado, 33, Cal, 29 and UCLA 22.
In the women’s competition, Stanford led after nine events with 71 points, followed by USC with 44 and UCLA, 39.
Early in the day, Alyssa Thompson gave the UA women’s team six points with a leap of 20-9¼ in the long jump to finish third. Thompson, who has a 4.0 GPA, was named Saturday as Pac-12 Women’s Track and Field Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Sophomore Karla Teran placed third in the high jump, clearing 5-9¼. Freshman Kaelyn Carlson-Shipley flung the javelin 149-3 to place seventh.
Kayla Ferron scored one point for the Wildcats by running 10:29.69 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase for eighth place. Her time was more than 10 seconds better than her previous record and might put her in place to qualify for the NCAA West preliminary round on May 24-26.
Sophomore Megan Dulaney finished eighth in the shot put with a throw of 48-8¼. That event was won by ASU’s Maggie Ewen, who registered a toss of 63-0¾. Ewen also won the hammer throw at 244-0.
In a 400-meter hurdles, heat, Karolina Pahlitzsch ran 59.34, which was off her season’s best, but fast enough to qualify for Sunday’s final. Junior Tatum Waggoner placed sixth in the 400-meter dash in 53.08.
In the men’s steeplechase, junior Bailey Roth could not repeat as Pac-12 champion, running a disappointing 9:00.26 for fourth place. Roth won the event last year at 8:39.83.
Senior Avery Mickens took seventh in the long jump at 23-10¾.
Numerous preliminary heats were run Saturday to narrow the field in the running events for today’s finals, which promise to offer some spirited competition.
UA redshirt senior Collins Kibet ran the day’s fastest time in the 800-meter heats to qualify for the final race.
Maksims Sincukovs, a Wildcat freshman from Latvia, ran the second fastest heat time in the 400-meter hurdle – 51.39.
Redshirt sophomore Carlos Villarreal qualified for Sunday’s final in the 1,500 meters, running 3:47.24, the sixth-fastest time of the day and only about one second behind the first-place finisher’s time.
Maj Williams sprinted the 200 meters in 21.0 and the 400 in 46.92, both good for fourth place. Teammate Zakee Washington was seventh in the 400 in 47.11 Both will run in the finals.
Football star Tyrell Johnson also qualified for the finals by recording the seventh fastest time, 10.43, in the 100 meters.
Tucsonan Turner Washington will team up with Geist in the discus Sunday, giving the Wildcats a strong scoring opportunity. The two freshmen rank first-second in the event in the Pac 12.
Bryant O’Georgia and Justice Summerset will also compete Sunday in the high jump, in which O’Georgia ranks first in the conference and Summerset is fourth.
