Stanford, California, May 12-13—Oregon ran its record skein of loop titles to 12 straight at the Pac-12 and USC’s Michael Norman laid out a long sprint double of most robust proportions.
The Trojan soph—who lowered the World Indoor 400 Record to 44.52 winning the NCAA title in March—sped through his lap here in 44.40 to briefly move to No. 9 on the all-time collegiate list (about a half-hour later the SEC finishers dropped him to No. 11).
A headwind greeted him in the homestretch but Norman sliced through it to win by 15m from Arizona frosh Maj Williams (46.20).
Some 67 minutes later, Norman lined up for the 200 and with the breeze (2.8mps) at his back ripped around the curve in 19.84w to win from Oregon’s Cravon Gillespie (20.26w).
“I’m really happy with how the 400 went, along with the 200 too,” Norman said (interview video here). “I was just a little bit bummed it was windy.
The time nevertheless moved Norman to No. 5 on the all-conditions collegiate half-lap ATL.
“Hopefully later in the season I’ll get another opportunity to run the 200 again and hopefully run a legal 19 seconds,” he said.
Of his 400 win, Norman said, “Although I got bumped down two places [behind Nathon Allen and Nathan Strother’s smokin’ times at the SEC], I think the execution of my race was great. It felt so smooth and light, almost effortless.”
Trojan senior Rai Benjamin turned a quick lap as well, over hurdles in 48.46 to jump to the top of the ’18 collegiate list. Benjamin, adjusting on the fly to newfound ability to 12-step most of the way, stumbled over hurdle 3 but recovered.
“It was pretty good,” said Benjamin, who missed his PR by just 0.13. (interview video of Benjamin & event coach Joanna Hayes here) “I got to see where I was at. My whole race plan changed as of yesterday [in his heat] due to some technical issues. Just to come out and execute was the main focus and emphasis that the coaches put on me and the other athletes today.”
A Dozen In A Row For Oregon
Oregon’s 174-point team triumph—with Stanford 2nd at 125—was powered by Gillespie’s 10.05w 100 win (with senior teammate Damarcus Simpson 2nd at 10.14w), another 1–2 in the 1500 from Sam Prakel and James West, soph Braxton Canady’s runaway in the 110H (13.57w) and a dominating repeat long jump win from Simpson.
A senior who transferred to Oregon from Div. II’s Chadron State after the ’16 season, Simpson opened the competition at 26-5¾ (8.07) before bounding a wind-aided 27-4 (8.33) in frame 3. He followed with a wind-legal 26-7¾ (8.12) in round 5.
“I had confidence that I’d be able to do it,” said Simpson. “My body felt perfect, so I knew I could repeat… that third jump was huge.”
It’s unusual for weightmen to mature quickly enough to be a force in their frosh year, but somebody forgot to tell Jordan Geist, as the Arizona yearling captured both the shot (65-9¾/20.06) and discus (188-10/57.56).
PAC-12 MEN’S RESULTS
Stanford, California, May 12-13—
(5/12—St, 10K, LJ, SP, JT, heats)
Teams: 1. Oregon 174; 2. Stanford 125; 3. USC 118; 4. Arizona 91; 5. Colorado 72; 6. Cal 67; 7. Washington State 56½; 8. Washington 42; 9. UCLA 38; 10. Arizona State 31½.
100(2.9): 1. *Cravon Gillespie (Or) 10.05w; 2. Damarcus Simpson (Or) 10.14w; 3. **TJ Brock (USC) 10.21w; 4. ***Gabe Navarro (Stan) 10.41w; 5. ***Rieker Daniel (Or) 10.57w; 6. **Davion Taylor (Co) 10.60w; 7. ***Myles Webb (Or) 10.76w.
200(2.8): 1. **Michael Norman (USC) 19.84w (a-c CL) (a-c: 5, 5 C; 4, 4 AmC);
2. Gillespie 20.26w; 3. Isaiah Brandt-Sims (Stan) 21.01w; 4. Daniel 21.07w; 5. ***Maj Williams (Az) 21.07w.
400: 1. Norman 44.40 (11, x C; 8, x AmC);
2. Williams 46.20; 3. Ricky Morgan (USC) 46.23; 4. *Cameron Stone (Or) 46.44; 5. *Orwin Emilien’ (Or) 46.59.
800: 1. Robert Ford (USC) 1:49.77; 2. Collins Kibet’ (Az) 1:50.42; 3. Sam Prakel (Or) 1:50.59; 4. ***Hari Sathyamurthy (Stan) 1:50.70; 5. **Mick Stanovsek (Or) 1:50.74.
1500: 1. Sam Prakel (Or) 3:40.20; 2. *James West’ (Or) 3:41.67; 3. *Grant Fisher (Stan) 3:41.97; 4. Sean McGorty (Stan) 3:43.19; 5. *Garrett Corcoran (Cal) 3:45.34.
St: I–1. *Takeshi Okada’ (Cal) 8:53.80. II–1. *Steven Fahy (Stan) 8:50.07; 2. Andrew Gardner (Wa) 8:50.71; 3. *Bailey Roth (Az) 9:00.26.
5000: 1. Ben Saarel (Co) 14:11.23; 2. Zach Perrin (Co) 14:12.07; 3. *Grant Fisher (Stan) 14:12.81; 4. Sean McGorty (Stan) 14:13.42; 5. Ryan Forsyth (Co) 14:13.69; 6. ***Cooper Teare (Or) 14:13.74; 7. *Steven Fahy (Stan) 14:13.80; 8. Jack Keelan (Stan) 14:19.07.
10,000: 1. Keelan 29:38.44; 2. **Tanner Anderson (Or) 29:39.64; 3. Forsyth 29:40.63; 4. *Robert Brandt (UCLA) 29:42.99; 5. Perrin 29:49.96; 6. ***Alek Parsons (Stan) 29:59.46.
110H(3.5): 1. **Braxton Canady (Or) 13.57w; 2. **Nick Johnson (WaSt) 13.84w; 3. ***Joseph Anderson (Or) 13.96w; 4. *Alexander Billing (Co) 14.11w.
400H: 1. *Rai Benjamin’ (USC) 48.46 (CL);
2. ***Cameron Samuel (USC) 50.29; 3. ***Maksims Sincukovs’ (Az) 51.06; 4. **Jonathan Harvey (Or) 51.25; 5. **Paramveer Chohan (Cal) 51.89.
4 x 100: 1. USC 39.38 (Ricky Morgan, Rai Benjamin’, TJ Brock, Zach Shinnick); 2. Oregon 39.41 (Damarcus Simpson, Cravon Gillespie, Julius Shellmire, Rieker Daniel); 3. Stanford 40.03; 4. Washington State 40.68; 5. Arizona 40.87.
4 x 400: 1. Arizona 3:07.46 (Zakee Washington, Daniel Egbo, Maksims Sincukovs’, Maj Williams); 2. Oregon 3:07.57; 3. Stanford 3:08.01; 4. Washington 3:08.81; 5. Colorado 3:13.04.
Field Events
HJ: 1. ***Earnie Sears (USC) 7-2½ (2.20); 2. *Ben Milligan (Or) 7-1½ (2.17); 3. **Justice Summerset (Az) 7-¼ (2.14); 4. *Bryant O’Georgia (Az) 6-11 (2.11).
PV: 1. ***Sander Moldau’ (WaSt) 17-2¼ (5.24); 2. Nathan Hiett (AzSt) 16-10¼ (5.14); 3. *Harrison Williams (Stan) 16-10¼; 4. ***Cole Riddle (AzSt) 16-6½ (5.04).
LJ: 1. Simpson 27-4w (8.33) (a-c CL, lo-alt out AL) (26-5¾, 26-1¾, 27-4w, p, 26-7¾, p) (8.07, 7.97, 8.33w, p, 8.12, p);
2. *Tristan James (Or) 25-7¼w (7.80) (25-6¼/7.78); 3. Dominic Smallwood (USC) 24-7 (7.49); 4. *Spenser Schmidt (Or) 24-5 (7.44); 5. ***Sanjay Kettels (Cal) 24-3¾ (7.41).
TJ: 1. *Tuomas Kaukolahti’ (Cal) 52-8¼w (16.06) (52-0/15.85); 2. *CJ Alumbres (UCLA) 51-5 (15.67); 3. *Tristan James (Or) 51-3½w (15.63) (51-1¾/15.59); 4. Dominic Smallwood (USC) 50-8¾w (15.46).
SP: 1. ***Jordan Geist (Az) 65-9¾ (20.06); 2. **McKay Johnson (Cal) 64-5¾ (19.65); 3. Péter Simon’ (Cal) 62-1 (18.92); 4. Nick Ponzio (USC) 61-4¾ (18.71).
DT: 1. Geist 188-10 (57.56); 2. Johnson 179-7 (54.75); 3. *Malik McMorris (Cal) 179-2 (54.61); 4. ***Turner Washington (Az) 178-5 (54.38); 5. **Jose Padilla (Wa) 176-4 (53.76); 6. Ponzio 174-3 (53.11).
HT: 1. **Nathan Bultman (USC) 219-10 (67.01); 2. *Brock Eager (WaSt) 218-1 (66.47); 3. *Justin Stafford (UCLA) 209-2 (63.77); 4. Michael Painter’ (Stan) 208-0 (63.41).
JT: 1. **Simon Litzell’ (UCLA) 244-3 (74.46); 2. *Trevor Danielson (Stan) 219-0 (66.75); 3. **Marian Spannowsky’ (UCLA) 216-10 (66.11); 4. *Denham Patricelli (Wa) 216-1 (65.87).
Dec(5/05-06): 1. H. Williams 7925 (11.06, 23-8¾/7.23, 44-11¾/13.71, 6-5/1.96, 48.67, 14.44, 141-1/43.01, 17-2¾/5.25, 150-8/45.92, 4:37.91).
