EUGENE, OREGON, May 13–15 — As meet host Oregon won its 15th straight Pac-12 men’s team crown, scoring 161 ahead of Washington (105) and USC (101), Cal frosh Mykolas Alekna spun out another monster throw in the discus circle.
In a series that built through the rounds, the Lithuanian standout followed his 219-7 (66.93) fourth-frame with his capper in round 5, a 225-6 (68.73) Collegiate Record that well exceeded the 223-7 (68.16) standard laid down by UCLA’s Julian Wruck in 2013.
Alekna “works very hard obviously, he’s a dedicated guy,” said Cal throws coach Mo Saatara, “and we’ve figured we’re just gonna move forward step by step and see where it goes. That’s pretty much our approach.
“Obviously at the Pac-12, he felt pretty good. We thought, OK, we wanted to score points with the team — that’s pretty big — and make sure he had a good showing. And then if he felt good, he was gonna take a big throw. But we’ve been working a lot right now so it was also a very nice surprise to see him do that. But yeah, it definitely was a great day.”
Of Alekna’s 17-plus feet of progress with the senior disc from 208-4 (63.52) last season to the CR, Saatara said, “I don’t think I’m surprised per se, but he is a very meticulous guy. He takes care of everything. That is throwing and preparations and all that stuff in terms of recovery, making sure he is in good, good shape, making sure that he’s doing his school work, all those little things that make big differences. He’s been great at that. So in terms of his progress, not necessarily surprised, but very happy to see that he’s at that level.”
The reigning world Junior champ, Alekna is still just 19. His father, 17-time World Ranker Virgilijus Alekna, never threw as far as his son already has until he was 26. That was in ’98, the year Alekna père scored the first of his 7 No. 1 ratings.
However, in April Alekna told T&FN, “It doesn’t matter how far you throw at a young age. He threw much further later. So maybe when I’ll reach his level I’ll tease him a little bit.”
With the NCAA and World Championships both to be contested at Hayward Field this summer, Saatara noted that Alekna “gets a chance to see that stadium again a couple more times so he figured out how to throw in there. It should be very exciting to see what he does with it.”
Saatara said of the thoroughly modern Hayward, now with a massive video board added to the north end this year, “With the new screen they put up, it’s pretty much like a stadium. You can’t rely on wind to get anything done in there. You’re gonna have to rely on your throwing ability and for us, I mean, that’s the way we work anyway.
“It’s always about do the right things in the circle to make sure you can throw under any conditions, whether it’s good wind, bad wind, stadium, rain. Whatever’s going on, under any conditions be able to execute.”
The host Ducks scored no fewer than 7 event wins, including a quick 9.93/20.05 double by soph Micah Williams.
PAC-12 MEN’S RESULTS
(5/13—10K, PV, JT; 5/14—St, LJ, SP, HT)
Teams: 1. Oregon 161; 2. Washington 105; 3. USC 101; 4. Stanford 89; 5. Arizona State 88; 6. Cal 85; 7. UCLA 68; 8. Colorado 61; 9. Washington State 34; 10. Arizona 27.
100(0.7): 1. **Micah Williams (Or) 9.93; 2. ***Udodi Onwuzurike’ (Stan-Ngr) 10.17; 3. Davonte Burnett’ (USC-Jam) 10.22; 4. **Xavier Nairne’ (Or-Jam) 10.27.
200(0.0): 1. Williams 20.05; 2. Onwuzurike’ 20.09; 3. Kasaun James (USC) 20.41; 4. ***Justin Robinson (AzSt) 20.65.
400: 1. **Johnnie Blockburger (USC) 45.19; 2. *Cameron Reynolds (UCLA) 45.47; 3. *Ismail Turner (UCLA) 45.65; 4. Robinson 45.74.
800: 1. **Elliott Cook (Or) 1:48.81; 2. ***Dayton Carlson (AzSt) 1:48.98; 3. ***Matthew Erickson (Or) 1:49.74.
1500: 1. **Joe Waskom (Wa) 3:40.33; 2. **Luke Houser (Wa) 3:40.44; 3. Eduardo Herrera (Co) 3:40.78; 4. **Elliott Cook (Or) 3:40.98.
St: 1. *Brian Fay’ (Wa-Ire) 8:32.47; 2. **Ky Robinson’ (Stan-Aus) 8:33.91; 3. Colton Johnsen (WaSt) 8:34.33; 4. **Joe Waskom (Wa) 8:41.72.
5000: 1. Eduardo Herrera (Co) 13:33.95; 2. **Cole Sprout (Stan) 13:36.50; 3. **Ky Robinson’ (Stan-Aus) 13:36.80; 4. Andrew Kent (Co) 13:37.18.
10,000: 1. **Charles Hicks’ (Stan-GB) 28:11.17; 2. Kieran Lumb’ (Wa-Can) 28:11.49; 3. Bienenfeld’ 28:14.67; 4. Kent 28:15.06.
110H(0.1): 1. **Jamar Marshall (AzSt) 13.39; 2. Omotade Ojora’ (USC-GB) 13.53.
400H: 1. *Cass Elliott (Wa) 50.80; 2. Mundy 51.11; 3. Aaron McCoy (Co) 51.29; 4. ***Matthew Wilkinson (Wa) 51.30.
4 x 100: 1. UCLA 39.50; 2. Cal 39.91. II–1. USC 38.60 (Burnett’, Stewart, James, Blockburger); 2. Arizona State 39.28; 3. Oregon 39.39.
4 x 400: 1. USC 3:03.39 (Ramey, Allen, James 44.84, Blockburger 45.11); 2. UCLA 3:03.53 (Turner 44.76, Reynolds 44.64); 3. Arizona State 3:05.53; 4. Colorado 3:06.67.
Field Events
HJ: 1. Earnie Sears (USC) 7-1½ (2.17); 2. Mitch Jacobson (WaSt) 7-1½.
PV: 1. *Jacob Englar (WaSt) 16-9¼ (5.11); 2. tie, **Max Manson (Stan) & Tate Curran (UCLA) 16-5¼ (5.01).
LJ: 1. *Pierce LaCoste (Or) 25-4½ (7.73); 2. **Emmanuel Ihemeje’ (Or-Ita) 25-¾ (7.64).
TJ: 1. Ihemeje’ 54-10 (16.71); 2. *Keyshawn King (Stan) 52-8 (16.05); 3. James’ 51-11¾ (15.84).
SP: 1. Josh Johnson (Cal) 65-5½ (19.95); 2. Jacob Wilson (UCLA) 63-3¼ (19.28); 3. **Jeff Duensing (Cal) 61-4¾ (18.71); 4. *Turner Washington (AzSt) 60-5¾ (18.43).
DT: 1. ***Mykolas Alekna’ (Cal-Lit) 225-6 (68.73) CR (old CR 223-7/68.16 Julian Wruck’ [UCLA] ’13) (203-7, 215-0, 214-7, 219-7, 225-6, p) (62.06, 65.55, 65.42, 66.93, 68.73, p);
2. ***Ralford Mullings’ (AzSt-Jam) 208-3 (63.47); 3. *Iffy Joyner (Cal) 185-8 (56.61); 4. Elijah Mason (Wa) 184-10 (56.35); 5. Johnson 183-7 (55.97);… 9. Washington 176-3 (53.73).
HT: 1. **Trey Knight (USC) 235-7 (71.81); 2. ***Jayden White (Wa) 230-4 (70.21); 3. **Ivar Moisander’ (Cal-Swe) 223-8 (68.18); 4. *Kris Emig (UCLA) 221-0 (67.36).
JT: 1. ***Ty Hampton (Or) 242-4 (73.86); 2. *Roan Allen’ (Wa-Can) 223-5 (68.11); 3. **Eric Lyon (Or) 217-6 (66.29).
Dec(5/13-14): 1. *Max Vollmer’ (Or-Ger) 7961; 2. **Jett Kinder (Or) 7124. ◻︎