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Pac-12 announces outdoor track & field athletes of the week

Apr 10, 2018

The Pac-12 Conference outdoor track and field athlete of the week honors for the week of April 2-8:

Men's Track Athlete of the Week
Michael Norman, USC
Sophomore
Murrieta, Calif.

Norman, a candidate for The Bowerman, collects his second Pac-12 weekly honor of the first month of the season after winning the Premiere 200-meter dash at the Sun Angel Classic. Norman's wind-legal time of 20.06 (-1.4) set a PR, meet and venue records, and was the winning time by nearly half a second. Norman's mark is the best collegiate time this season and would have been good enough to capture the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Norman moved from eighth to fourth on USC's all-time 200 list with the fifth-best wind-legal time in Conference history.

ALSO NOMINATED: Zach Perrin, COLORADO; Rieker Daniel, OREGON; Isaiah Brandt-Sims, STANFORD; Colby Gilbert, WASHINGTON; Ja'Maun Charles, WASHINGTON STATE.

Women's Track Athlete of the Week
Anna Cockrell, USC
Sophomore
Charlotte, N.C.

Cockrell, the reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, won both the 100- and 400-meter hurdles at the Sun Angel Classic, including a PR-tying time of 12.89 (-0.9) in the 100 hurdles. That time set both meet and venue records and is the third-best wind-legal and sixth-best overall mark in the nation this season. Cockrell then came back to win the 400 hurdles in her first race of the season with a time of 58.30, good for 14th-best in the country to date.

ALSO NOMINATED: Makena Morley, COLORADO; Venessa D'Arpino, OREGON; Dakota Steen, OREGON STATE; Carolyn Wilson, STANFORD.

Men's Field Athlete of the Week
Jordan Geist, ARIZONA
Freshman
Saxonburg, Pa.

Geist amassed 28 points - winning one event and setting PRs in two others - to help Arizona win the Jim Click Shootout. Geist, who led the nation in the shot put during the indoor season, won his first outdoor shot put event of the year with a mark of 19.69 meters (64-7.25), good for No. 7 on this year's NCAA performance list to date. The freshman also set PRs in the hammer throw (60.72m/199-2) and discus (55.50m/182-1), taking second in both events.

ALSO NOMINATED: Cole Riddle, ARIZONA STATE; McKay Johnson, CALIFORNIA; Tristan James, OREGON; Simon Litzell, UCLA; Earnest Sears, USC; Jose Padilla, WASHINGTON; Brock Eager, WASHINGTON STATE.

Women's Field Athlete of the Week
Maggie Ewen, ARIZONA STATE
Senior
St. Francis, Minn.

The Bowerman candidate secured both Pac-12 and USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week honors for the second time this season with one of the greatest weekends of competition in collegiate history at the 39th Sun Angel Classic. Ewen won all three of her events (hammer, shot put and discus), soaring to the top of the collegiate ranks so far this season in each - the only NCAA athlete with leads in three invidividual events.

In the hammer, her top event in which she owns the Pac-12 all-time mark of 74.56 meters (244-7) set at last summer's USATF Championships, Ewen broke her own collegiate record three separate times, including a meet-winning toss of 74.53 meters (244-6). She extended her Conference record and climbed to second in collegiate history in the shot put with a winning toss of 19.22 meters (63-0.75), less than five inches from the NCAA record. Ewen also jumped from 10th to fifth all-time in league history in the discus with a meet-winning and NCAA-leading throw of 61.27 meters (201-0).

Ewen is now the only athlete, male or female, to rank in the top five in league history in three throwing events. It is her sixth career Pac-12 Athlete of the Week accolade, and third career USTFCCCA Outdoor Athlete of the Week honor.

ALSO NOMINATED: Karolina Pahlitzsch, ARIZONA; Camryn Rogers, CALIFORNIA; Rajon O'Quinn, COLORADO; Maddie Rabing, OREGON; Amy Hilger, OREGON STATE; Mackenzie Little, STANFORD; Alyssa Wilson, UCLA; Lyndsey Lopes, USC.

Pac-12 in the USTFCCCA National Rankings (April 9)

Men's Top 25: #6 Oregon, #7 USC, #25 Stanford

Three Pac-12 teams hold the top event squad (best foursome) in the nation - USC in the 200, Oregon in the 1,500, and California in the shot put.

Women's Top 25: #2 Oregon, #3 USC, #11 Stanford, #13 Arizona State, #16 Colorado

The Women of Oregon held steady at No. 2 this week, while the Pac-12's five other ranked teams each improved one spot.

Pac-12 on The Bowerman Watch List

Men's Post-Indoor: Rai Benjamin, USC; Michael Norman, USC.

Women's Post-Indoor: Kendall Ellis, USC; Maggie Ewen, ARIZONA STATE.

2018 Pac-12 Track & Field Athletes of the Week

  Men's Track Women's Track Men's Field Women's Field
March 20 Ricky Morgan Jr., USC Karolina Pahlitzsch, ARIZ Brock Eager, WSU Isabella Marten, CAL
March 27 Michael Norman, USC Twanisha Terry, USC Bryant O'Georgia, ARIZ Maggie Ewen, ASU
April 3 Sean McGorty, STAN Grayson Murphy, UTAH McKay Johnson, CAL Ashlie Blake, UCLA
April 10 Michael Norman, USC Anna Cockrell, USC Jordan Geist, ARIZ Maggie Ewen, ASU