Washington track & field wins multiple titles for first time since 2006

Washington’s track and field program finished with two national titles and another two program bests at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

The NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships took place this weekend, providing Washington ample chances to continue their strong run over the last few seasons.

The Huskies answered in kind, with two locals taking home multiple individual national titles for the first time since the 2006 outdoor championships. Senior Luke Houser of Woodinville came away with the gold in the mile, while freshman and Olympia native Hana Moll took the title in the pole vault on Friday.

Houser’s title made it back-to-back championships for the senior, the first to achieve the feat in the mile since New Mexico’s Josh Kerr in 2017-18. Only three other Huskies have ever successfully defended a national track title: pole vaulters Scott Roth (2010-11) and Brad Walker (2003-04) and hammer thrower Scott Neilson, who won four straight titles from 1976-79.

Houser became the tenth back-to-back indoor mile champ in NCAA history with his time of 4:01.72, taking a lead on the rest of the pack with 800 meters to go. He continued Washington’s recent run of dominance in the distance event, marking the Huskies’ fourth straight title. The streak began at the 2022 outdoor championships with Joe Waskom (who finished 8th on Saturday), followed by Houser’s first indoor title last season and an outdoor championship from Nathan Green.

On Friday, Moll became the first ever freshman to win an NCAA indoor pole vault title with a jump of 15 feet, 1 inch. A Husky legacy – her dad Eric rowed on Montlake – Moll came into the event as the American high school and U20 record holder and fell just two inches short of her personal best.

Her title was the first national championship since Katie Flood’s outdoor 1,500m gold in 2012 and marked just the second time a Husky woman took home the pole vault title. Kate Soma also won the event during outdoor season in 2005.

The freshman took three attempts at the Olympic Standard of 15 feet, 6 1/4 inches but fell just short of clearing it.

Washington sent 16 athletes to the weekend’s championships, entering as the No. 5 men’s squad and No. 10 women’s team. Seven were named First Team All-Americans based on their results, including Houser, Moll, weight thrower Jayden White, long jumper Preston Artis, heptathlete Bruno Comin Pescador, miler Joe Waskom, and 800m runner Wilma Nielsen.

Pole vaulters Mathis Bresko, Max Manson, and Nastassja Campbell, 800m runners Nathan Green and Carley Thomas, miler Chloe Foerster, and Houser (in the 3000m) were also named Second Team All-America. Both distance medley relay teams also made the second team. The men’s squad of Evan Jenkins, Daniel Gaik, Ronan McMahon-Staggs, and Leo Daschbach finished ninth, while the women’s combination of Foerster, Anna Terrell, Marlena Preigh, and India Weir came in 11th.

White closed his record-setting Husky career with an eighth place finish in the weight throw on Thursday. Artis, a freshman, set a personal best by a full five inches on his first jump with a 26 foot, 3 inch leap that put him in fifth place after qualifying as the 15th of 16 competitors.

Nielsen’s 2:02.33 in the 800m final on Saturday came in a photo finish, as she was just 18 hundredths behind third place finisher Meghan Hunter from BYU. Still, her sixth place was the best finish in school history in the event. Comin Pescador’s fifth place finish in the heptathlon was also the best in school history, breaking a tie between the Spaniard and Jeremy Taiwo, who finished eighth in 2011.

The Husky men finished the event in tenth place with 20 points, their fifth top-10 finish in program history. It’s the second time in school history they’ve finished in the top-10 in consecutive seasons after placing fourth last year; they were also top-10 finishers in 2007-08.

On the women’s side, their 13 points were good for 17th place, the fourth-best finish in program history and best since 2016. It’s the first time in school history that the women have finished in the top-25 in consecutive seasons after finishing in 24th last year.

The Huskies now have a few weeks off before kicking off the outdoor season, scheduled to begin with the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto from March 29-30.