Pat Licari

Hometown: Sumner, Wash. Position: Assistant Coach, Vault/Jumps/Multis Experience: 15th Year

Fifteen years into Pat Licari's tenure at Washington, and the veteran coach continues to churn out All-Americans on a yearly basis.

Licari Coaching Pole Vault

Over the past 14 seasons, Licari has developed some of the nation's premier pole vaulters, including one Olympian, three NCAA champions with six titles between them, four Pac-12 champions and 10 different All-Americans.

The 2011 campaign saw Licari-coached Scott Roth cap off a remarkable career with his second and third national championships, as he won the NCAA title both indoors and outdoors in the pole vault. He became the first Husky since 1979 to win two titles in the same year, and his three career titles placed Roth second in UW history. Roth was a semifinalist for the Bowerman Award, and was the Tom Hansen Pac-12 Medal winner for Washington. He set the outdoor school record at 18-9 ¼, which was the second-best vault in all of 2011 by an American, and Roth finished with seven All-America honors.

Meanwhile, another one of Licari's vaulters got hot at exactly the right time, as sophomore Logan Miller made it to NCAA West Prelims with the minimum qualifying height, and then PR'd by five inches to advance to her first Nationals with a mark of 13-5 ¼. Miller cleared that same height in Des Moines to finish 11th, earning All-America Second Team honors, the first women's vaulter to pick up All-America honors since 2008.

Roth was not alone on the men's side in 2011. Senior Ryan Vu had only indoor eligibility remaining, but he made the most of it, qualifying for his first NCAA Indoor Championships and tying for 11th-place to earn All-America Second Team honors, the first of his career. Newcomer Robby Fegles also raised his PR to 16-9 ½ in his first season working with Licari, and qualified for NCAA West Prelims.

In 2010, Roth took another step up among the nation's elite vaulters. He won every competition he entered during the indoor season, culminating with a victory at the NCAA Indoor Championships for his first national title, and the fourth overall for Licari vaulters. He also posted the top indoor vault by an American in 2010, clearing 18-9 ¼ to win the MPSF Championship. Roth went on to take third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Yet it was another Licari disciple who upset Roth to win the 2010 Pac-10 title, as Ryan Vu cleared a career-best 17-7 ¾ to take the win after Roth won in 2009. Vu qualified for his first career NCAA meet in his final outdoor season, tying for 11th overall.

Roth won his first Pac-10 Championship in 2009 with a season-best clearance of 18-4 ½ and followed that with a West Regional title. He then went on to place second at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to earn his third All-America honor. Roth's fantastic summer ended with an eighth-place finish at the U.S. Track Championships.

Licari's successes in 2009 stretched far beyond Roth. In fact, Roth was just one of a trio of Husky men that cleared 17-6 in the vault. Senior Jared O'Connor went over 17-7 and made the NCAA Outdoor final for the second year in a row, while junior Ryan Vu had a big breakthrough, PRing by a foot at the UW-WSU dual and making his first Regionals.

Still, the best story from 2009 may have been Andrea Peterson on the women's side. Peterson brought a personal-best of 12-8 into her senior season, but made Regionals for the first time in her final year, and then at the Regional meet she PR'd by seven inches, clearing 13-9 ¾ to take second and make her first NCAA meet. That clearance was the second-best in school history.

The 2008 season brought similar surprise successes. Indoors, senior Kelley DiVesta continued to improve all the way through her final national meet, as she set a lifetime-best at NCAA Indoors of 13-9 ¼ to earn her first All-American honor. In one of the year's best moments, Jared O'Connor raised his PR by nearly a foot at the final two outdoor meets, winning the NCAA West Regional title and then finishing in a tie for second at the NCAA Championships.

In 2007, Husky fans used to watching the nation's top vaulters were treated to the emergence of freshman Scott Roth under Licari's guidance. Roth picked up All-American honors both indoors (11th) and outdoors (8th), and captured gold at the 2007 Pan-American Junior Athletics Championships in São Paulo, Brazil. Roth's best indoor jump of 18-1 ¾ broke the UW freshman indoor record set by Olympian and World Champion Brad Walker.

Licari guided Walker to back-to-back NCAA indoor titles in 2003 and 2004, and a collegiate-best clearance of 19-0 1/4 that is a Pac-10 record, and the sixth-best mark ever by a collegiate vaulter. Licari continued to train Walker during the latter's professional career, guiding the former Husky to gold medals at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships and 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Championships, as well as five U.S. National titles, most recently in 2009, the same meet where Roth took eighth. In June of 2008, Walker cleared 19-9 ¾ at the Prefontaine Classic to break the American record which had stood for eight years. Walker would go on to represent the U.S.A. at the Beijing Olympic Games.

Washington in 2005 became the first school in America to qualify four women's vaulters for the NCAA Championships, doing so both indoors and out. Senior Kate Soma won the NCAA title outdoors -- Licari's third NCAA champion in as many years -- and was the national runner-up indoors, earning the fourth and fifth All-America honors of her collegiate career.

Carly Dockendorf (sixth outdoors) and Ashley Wildhaber (fifth indoors) also earned All-America honors at the NCAA meet, while Stevie Marshalek and Kelley DiVesta each earned NCAA Championships berths. Dockendorf was a converted gymnast who climbed into the top-10 in Canadian history after less than one full calendar year of work with Licari and continues to compete professionally while training with Licari in the Dempsey. Dockendorf earned the bronze medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, competing for Canada, a new highlight of her post-collegiate career.

All five women's vaulters topped the 13-foot mark -- a feat never before accomplished by any women's collegiate vault unit -- while Soma's collegiate-best vault of 14-3 1/2 ranked seventh in collegiate history.

Brad Walker first entered elite status in 2002, when he won his first of two-straight Pac-10 titles, was runner-up at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, and placed sixth at the U.S.A Championships. His first All-America honor had come in 2001 when he placed seventh at NCAA Indoors. Licari's first pole vault All-American was Matt Phillips, who placed eighth at Outdoor Nationals in 2000, clearing 17-4 ½.

Licari Coaching Jumps

Licari has also had great success with his jumpers and last year the Huskies showed a great deal of promise in every event, led by strides in the triple jump. Junior Taylor Nichols and sophomore Shaniae Lakes both qualified NCAA West Prelims in the triple jump, and both scored at the Pac-10 meet. Nichols was also the runner-up at the MPSF Championships. On the men's side, Kasen Covington broke the freshman school record with a best mark of 50-8 ¼ indoors, and he scored at Pac-10s and made NCAA West Prelims. Freshman high jumper A.J. Maricich was also a Prelims qualifier, and cleared 6-11 ½ indoors. Sophomore Julian Bardwell continued to push his PR, and he made his first NCAA Prelims field in the long jump with a season-best of 24-3 ¾.

One year prior, Lakes broke the women's freshman record in the triple jump, going 41-0 ¼ and reaching West Prelims. In 2009, freshman Kelly McNamee emerged in the high jump, placing 12th at the NCAA Indoor meet as the top finishing freshman.

In 2008, Norris Frederick completed one of the greatest careers of any Husky in any event. Frederick was the only athlete in the NCAA who was an All-American in both the long jump and high jump, and he did that both indoors and out. The four All-American honors brought Frederick's career total to nine, tied for second-most ever at Washington. Frederick also set personal-bests in both events, and his 26-foot, 7 ¾-inch long jump to win the MPSF title was a school record. He went on to compete in the Olympic Trials.

In 2005, J.R. Wolfork was an NCAA long jumper qualifier and Frederick and Warren Eickhoff became the first Husky duo to top seven feet in the high jump since 1989.

Licari Coaching Multis

Licari also handles the all-around talents on the Husky squad, the decathletes and heptathletes. That current group is headlined by Jeremy Taiwo, who became Washington's first Pac-10 Decathlon Champion in 25 years in 2011, as he scored a career-best 7,742 points despite throwing the javelin with his non-dominant left hand due to an injury. Taiwo picked up his second and third career All-America honors last year, placing eighth in the heptathlon at NCAA Indoors and 15th in the decathlon at NCAA Outdoors.

Taiwo earned his first All-America honor indoors in the heptathlon in 2009. In 2010 he posted a runner-up finish in the Pac-10 decathlon and improved to fourth on the Washington career Top-10 with a score of 7,521 points.

Senior Andrew Ferleman also wrapped his career with a lifetime-best 5,309 point showing in the heptathlon at the MPSF Championships, placing fourth. Sophomore Sarah Schireman upped her heptathlon PR to 4,657 points, the seventh-best score in school history.

Jacob Predmore was UW's last multi-event All-American before Taiwo, as he was seventh in the decathlon at the 2000 NCAA Outdoor Championships with 7,426 points.

In all, Licari's athletes have combined for six NCAA titles, six Pac-10 titles, and 35 All-America awards during his 14 years at UW.

Licari was head cross country and track coach at Highline Community College from 1991-96 before coming to the UW in 1997.

A native of Sumner, Wash., Licari was a prep All-American and state pole vault champion at Sumner High School, and earned All-Pac-10 honors in the event at Washington State.

Licari and his wife, Jean -- the head track coach at Federal Way High School -- have two daughters, Katelin and Madison.