MPSF Track & Field Championships
Dempsey Indoor - February 27-28, 2015
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SEATTLE – The Husky track and field squad came out swinging on day one of the MPSF Championships in the Dempsey Indoor, winning three events and sitting first in the men's standings and second overall on the women's side. The Huskies swept the pole vault titles, with Kristina Owsinski providing the day's biggest thrill with a win that should move her on to the NCAA Championships. Jax Thoirs delivered the win in the men's vault, and Aaron Nelson commanded the men's 5,000-meters for an emphatic victory.
With the majority of the event finals to come on Saturday, starting at 10:30 a.m., the Huskies have put themselves in a good spot with a number of scorers this evening. Washington leads a closely bunched men's race with 32.5 points, followed by Cal and UCLA each with 31. UCLA has 51 points on the women's side to lead, followed by the Huskies with 36, and USC with 35. This is the first year that all twelve Pac-12 teams are represented at the MPSF Indoor Championships. The Husky women have already posted more points through day one than they posted total last year.
Owsinski came into the meet ranked 32nd on the national lists, with the top-16 athletes making the field for NCAA Indoors in two weeks at Arkansas. This weekend then would be the last chance for the junior from Ridgefield, Wash. but she'd need to set a career-best by about six inches, no easy task in the vault. Owsinski was one of three Huskies to clear 13-6 ¼, as Diamara Planell Cruz and Elizabeth Quick also made that bar.
Planell Cruz is safely in the NCAA mix with her 14-2 season-best. But Owsinski and Quick would need to make the next height, an even 14-feet, to get into the top-16. On her third and final attempt, Owsinski shot up and leaned over cleanly and pumped her fists back down on the mat, as she'd made the 14-foot mark for the first time. Planell Cruz and Quick went out jumping at the 14-foot mark, finishing third and fourth overall, with Owsinski going on to 14-2. She missed her first two attempts, but once again on her last try, she got over cleanly to match the season-best of Planell Cruz, tying her teammate for the No. 2 spot in school history. The two are now tied for ninth on the national list this year. Owsinski would finally miss jumping at a school record height of 14-4. Owsinski, a redshirt junior, won the MPSF title last year as well, but that came at just 13-5 ¾.
A loaded men's pole vault field got mostly stuck at the 17-foot mark, as seven men cleared that bar but then only two, UW's Thoirs and Michael Woepse of UCLA, went any higher. Both made 17-5 ¾, and then Thoirs made it over 17-11 ¾ on his first attempt to take command. Woepse went out at that height to give Thoirs the win. The two also battled at last year's Pac-12 Championships, with Thoirs getting the win on that instance as well. He raised the bar to 18-6, which would have been a new PR, but was unable to clear. Lev Marcus and J.J. Juilfs were two of the vaulters tied at 17-feet, with Marcus finishing tied for sixth based on number of attempts, and Juilfs placing eighth overall.
The third win of the day came from Nelson, who entered with the best mark in the 5k field, and proved he was the class of the event as he took the lead a little past the halfway mark and held it the rest of the way to win in 13:53.80. He adds an MPSF crown to go with his Pac-12 steeplechase title from last spring. Nelson was hoping to improve on his 13:47.42 PR from two weeks ago, which has him ranked 16th nationally and right on the bubble, but he'll have to wait and see if the time holds up.
In the women's 5,000-meters, sophomore Kaylee Flanagan had a huge career-best run, going 16:19.94 to finish fifth overall. That time took 25-seconds off her previous indoor PR, and moved her up to No. 5 on the UW top-10 list, one spot behind her older sister Lindsay, who graduated last spring.
The evening track events wrapped up with the distance medley relays. While the Husky women had their three-year winning streak snapped, they still ran a very strong second-place time of 11:09.33. Baylee Mires led the opening 1,200-meters and took the lead, passing to Gianna Woodruff for 400-meters, then to freshman Rose Christen on the 800-meter leg, and Eleanor Fulton to close the 1,600-meter leg. Stanford took the lead going into the 800m and held it for the win in 11:02.98, with Fulton finishing eleven seconds ahead of Arizona State in third. The four Dawgs now rank fifth in school history.
The men's DMR had its best run of the season, with Blake Nelson, Andrew Brown, Nick Harris, and Colby Gilbert teaming up to finish third overall in a time of 9:34.81. That's the No. 3 time in school history, faster than three teams that all finished fifth at the NCAA meet from 2005 through 2007, but it won't quite be fast enough to get the Dawgs into the NCAA field this season.
Over in the long jump, sophomore Kennadi Bouyer had a 19-foot jump to finish sixth overall, and sophomore Alanna Coker just missed scoring as she was ninth with a season-best mark of 18-9 ¾. Bouyer also ran the 60-meters in 7.50 seconds, finishing 12th overall.
Also in the 60-meters, freshman Sierra Peterson had a season-best 7.51 seconds to move up to seventh on the top-10 list, and senior Haley Jacobson moved into the No. 10 spot with a PR of 7.58 seconds, good for 17th overall.
In the 200-meters, Jacobson had another big PR, running 24.69 to place 12th. That moves her from ninth up to sixth on the top-10 list. Peterson also ran a PR by .24 seconds, going 24.77 to finish 15th and move to seventh right behind Jacobson.
On the men's side, Quadelle Satterwhite scored for the Dawgs in the 200-meters, taking sixth overall in 21.51. Satterwhite also got the eighth and final spot in the 60-meter dash final, running a season-best 6.81 in the prelims. Lucas Strong was 11th in 6.89.
In the 60m hurdle prelims, junior Chris Williams posted the fastest time of the day on the men's side, going 7.90 to win his heat. Junior Kimberly Stueckle also made the women's final for the first time, running a career-best 8.42, fifth-fastest on the day, to advance to Saturday.
The first final of the day came in the women's weight throw, where freshman Onyie Chibuogwu for the first time all year did not come out with a PR, but still threw 53-3 to finish 16th overall. Junior Bev Coleman was 20th at 51-7 ¼.
The women's pentathlon packed all five events into one Friday, with junior C.J. Smith capping the day off with a win in the final event, the 800-meter run. Smith won in a time of 2:16.16, and also had PRs in the shot put of 33-0 ½ and in the high jump at 4-9, ending up 13th overall with 3,191 points.
In the men's heptathlon, senior Nick Pfeiffer sits seventh overall after four of the seven events with 2,855 points. Pfeiffer had a PR of 7.19 seconds in the 60m dash, and his 6-0 ¾ high jump was also a PR. He was fourth in the field in the long jump at 22-4 ¼, and went 39-0 ½ in the shot put.
