Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100
Distraction; Situational Awareness
Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors; Procedure
We crossed the hold-down fix SELLZ 400 ft. high while climbing expediently to avoid wake turbulence from a B737 we were departing behind; and had been in its wake since 500 ft. after rotating. Focused on climbing out of their wake; I called for max power and was maintaining max climb rate when we realized we were to level at 8;000 ft. As I was hand flying; I initiated a descent and topped out at 8;400 ft. before beginning our return to 8;000 ft. Passing back through 8;300 ft.; ATC said 'I see you are returning to 8;000' and handed us off.
The First Officer was hand flying the aircraft and flew 400 ft. above the 8;000 ft. max altitude at SELLZ. We flew through the [wake] of the aircraft ahead of us numerous times and the F/O was trying to climb above the preceding aircraft's flight path. I said that we needed to level off at 8;000 ft.; but he didn't recognize the error and didn't level off until we had climbed to 8;400 ft. I stated that we needed to descend back down to 8;000 ft. immediately when ATC told us that we missed the hold-down at SELLZ. Then ATC saw us quickly descending back to 8;000 ft. and verbally acknowledged our correction.
B737 flight crew reported overshooting an altitude restriction after being distracted by a wake turbulence encounter departing LAS in trail of a B737.