Pac-12 Track & Field: Josh Johnson Upsets National Champ to Win Shot Put
Cal scored a victory in a throwing event for the second straight day at the Pac-12 Track and Field Championships as graduate student Josh Johnson upset defending national champion Turner Washington of Arizona State in the shot put on Saturday.
A day after Camryn Rogers won her third Pac-12 title in the women’s hammer throw, Johnson threw a career-best 65 feet, 5 1/2 inches (19.95 meters) and topped 64 feet on three of his six attempts at Oregon's Hayward Field.
He remains No. 2 on Cal’s all-time list behind Dave Porath, who threw 66-3 to win the Pac-8 title in 1981.
Johnson, just the third Cal athlete to win the event at the conference meet since 1963, led three Golden Bears who scored in the shot. Jeff Duensing was third at 61-4 3/4 (18.71) and fellow sophomore Jake Porter was fifth at 58-10 3/4 (17.95).
Washington, who won the 2021 NCAA outdoor title and is a two-time NCAA indoor champ, fouled four times in six attempts and finished fourth with a best throw of 60-5 3/4 (18.43), more than 10 feet off his best.
The Pac-12 meet concludes Sunday. Cal's men are in third place in the team standings with 40 points, trailing leader Oregon at 67. The Cal women are fifth with 29 points while Oregon leads with 60.
Meanwhile, Ivar Moisander, a sophomore from Falun, Sweden, finished third in the men’s hammer with a personal-best throw of 223-8 (68.18). Moisander topped his previous personal best four times in six rounds.
The top seven finishers and nine of the top 10 delivered personal bests, including winner Trey Knight of USC, who threw 235-7 (71.81).
In other field event finals on Saturday, sophomore Mason Magnum, a wide receiver on the Cal football team, unleashed a personal-best long jump of 24-7 (7.49) on his final attempt to secure fourth place.
Freshman Amelia Flynt was seventh in the women’s shot put at 53-4 1/2 (16.27) and Asha Fletcher was eighth in the women’s long jump at 19-5 1/4 (5.92).
In running event prelims qualifying athletes into Sunday’s finals:
— Seniors Ezinne Abba (11.20) and Maisie Stevens (11.44) and freshman Aysha Shaheed (a personal-best 11.62) were second, fifth and ninth, all qualifying for the women’s 100 final. USC’s Celera Barnes was the fastest qualifier at 11.16 while four Oregon women advanced.
— Senior decathlete Hakim McMorris ran a personal-best of 13.89 seconds to qualify third in the 110-meter hurdles
— Senior Moises Medrano qualified ninth in the 800 meters at 1:50.35
— Sophomore Jada Hicks ran a personal-best of 13.46 to qualify eighth in the 100 hurdles.
Cover photo of Josh Johnson by Catharyn Hayne, KLC fotos
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo