It was déjà vu, Arizona track and field style.
Two weeks ago, Arizona senior Shannon Meisberger lunged at the finish of the 400-meter hurdles to beat an Oregon runner by three one-hundreds of a second. On Sunday, she pulled every ounce of strength from her body to edge another Oregon runner by .04 and to win the Pacific-12 championship in 56.43 seconds at the University of Oregon.
Meisberger’s heroics were matched by an outstanding performance by Talie Bonds. The junior transfer collected 16 points for the Wildcat women’s team by capturing the high jump at 5-9¼ and running her fastest race ever in the 110-meter hurdles, 13.17 seconds, to place third.
Meisberger, a senior from Lennox, Mass., led most of the way Sunday in the one-lap race punctuated by 10 hurdles. But at the last hurdle, Oregon’s Alexandra Webster grabbed the lead and seemed destined to win. Somehow, relying on years of competition and training under Coach Fred Harvey, she drew even with Webster and lunged at the finish line to win.
On Saturday, the UA women got two third-place finishes to give them a head start in the scoring. Skylar Sieben compiled 5,542 points in the heptathlon, paced by a first-place finish in the shot put. Samantha Noennig joined Sieben on the podium with a throw of 57-5½ in the shot put, and she took sixth in the discus on Sunday at 175-3. Noenning also earned recognition as 2022 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The UA also took a third-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay with Jenica Bosko, Anna Foreman, Dior Asemota and Meisberger. The finish pushed the Wildcat women’s team to seventh place in the 12-team standings, edging ASU. The sprinter-rich Oregon women easily won the conference title with 167 points.
Without Jordan Geist, the men’s team shot put, discus and hammer throw specialist, the UA men placed 10th and last. Geist is redshirting.
Oregon also won the men's title.
The top UA women and men’s athletes head to the first round of the NCAA championships May 25-28, and top qualifiers will compete in the NCAA finals June 8-11.
