MPSF Championships Wrap Up Dempsey Season

Friday, February 23

Seattle, WA

All Day

University of Washington

MPSF Indoor Championships

February 21, 2018 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

2018 MPSF Championships
February 23-24 | Dempsey Indoor

Live Results | Flotrack Live Stream | MPSF Home Page

Final Schedule | Entry Lists | Heat Sheets

SEATTLE - The Dempsey season comes to a close this Friday and Saturday with the annual Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships, the premiere indoor conference championship for all track teams in the west. This is the 15th consecutive year that Washington has hosted MPSFs in the Dempsey, and along with conference titles and team points to chase, the meet also serves as a final chance to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships.

The championships begin on Friday at 12 noon and runs until approximately 7:40 p.m. The first several hours on Friday will feature finals in the women's weight throw and women's pole vault, and the multi-events. Track races start at 4:30 p.m. on Friday with prelims of the 60m hurdles. Other field event finals held on Friday will include the men's pole vault and weight throw, and men's and women's long jumps. On the track, the men's and women's 5,000-meters, 200-meters, and distance medley relays will be contested, plus prelims for the 60-meter dashes.

Saturday picks back up at 10:30 a.m. Field events on Saturday include both men's and women's shot puts, high jumps, and triple jumps. Finals on the track will begin at 11 a.m. with the women's and men's mile runs, followed by the 60m hurdles finals, the 400-meters, 60-meter dash finals, 800-meters, 3,000-meters, and the 4x400m relays to finish the championships by approximately 3:00 p.m.

The meet is the final chance for athletes and relays to earn a spot at NCAA Indoors, which are coming up on March 9-10 in College Station, Texas. The top 16 individuals and top 12 relays in each event will qualify, with four Huskies currently holding top-16 spots: Colby Gilbert in the 3k, Jack Lembcke in the shot put, Chase Smith in the pole vault, and Amy-Eloise Neale in the 3k.

The MPSF field continues to grow seemingly every year, as UC Davis and San Francisco are both adding their women's teams to the mix in 2018, bringing the total to 15 men's teams and 22 women's teams, the largest field in conference history. Every Pac-12 team will be on hand, plus BYU, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, Hawaii, Long Beach State, Portland, UC Irvine, and UC Riverside, and the aforementioned UC Davis and USF. Cal State Fullerton, Hawaii, Oregon State, UC Davis, UC Irvine, San Francisco and Utah feature women's teams only.

In the most recent USTFCCCA rankings, USC leads the way in both the men's and women's conference pecking order. The Trojans are ranked fourth on the men's side, with the only other Top-25 men's teams being No. 13 Oregon and No. 16 Stanford. On the women's side USC is ranked second nationally, followed by No. 5 Oregon, No. 9 Stanford, No. 18 Colorado, and No. 20 Arizona State. The Huskies are ranked 31st overall on the men's side and 69th on the women's side.

The MPSF meet uses the standard championship point system of 10 points for first, 8 points for second, and 6-5-4-3-2-1 for third through eighth-place.

A rundown of the Husky entries starting on the women's side in the sprints, school record-holder Iman Brown will get to challenge some of the NCAA's elite in the women's 200-meter dash and she will also run the 60-meters for the first time this year. Sarah Stavig will also go in the 60-meters and 200-meters, and Imani Apostol goes in the 200-meters as well. The 400-meters will feature Carolyn Birkenfeld and Hanna Tarleton, both part of the school record-setting 4x400m relay from two weeks ago in New Mexico, plus Darhian Mills and Carly Lester. Raquel Tjernagel is slated to run both the DMR and 4x4 relays. Hurdling for the Dawgs will be Mills and Morganne Hill.

At 800-meters Hannah Derby and Mikelle Ackerley are both entered, while the mile features Amy-Eloise Neale, Anna Maxwell, and Maddie Meyers. Meyers and Maxwell and Derby are all scheduled to give one more shot at the DMR and earning a top-12 spot there on Friday night.

At the longer distances, junior Emily Hamlin and freshman Hannah Waskom will chase PRs and points in the 3,000-meters, and the 5,000-meters will feature freshman Camila David-Smith and senior Madeleine Westerhoff.

Mayson Douglass will take on the high jump and the women's vault will feature Tori Franzen, Annika Dayton, and Makenna Barton. Freshman Jelani Heath goes in her first MPSFs in the long jump.

In the throws, redshirt freshman Angel Nkwonta and senior Katie Wardsworth will be the first to compete, throwing the weight on Friday afternoon. Gina Flint will look to score some shot put points on Saturday.

Washington's one multi-event entry will be freshman Hannah Rusnak, going for the pentathlon for the second time this season.

For the men, Khalil Winfrey leads the way for the Dawgs in the short sprints as he comes in seeded fourth in the conference in the 60-meters. Kevin Liu and Christian Young will both run both the 60-meters and 200-meters, while Kemuel Santana runs the 200-meters. The 400-meters will feature Ryan Croson, seeded fifth in the conference coming in, along with Evan Mafilas and Jason Palmer. Michael Thomas and Jacopo Spanò are entered only in the 4x400m relay pools. Senior Eric Simpson will look to score in his final MPSF in the 60m hurdles.

Mid-distances will have freshman Devan Kirk in the 800-meters while Nate Beamer and Nick Laccinole run the mile. Beamer, Laccinole, and Kirk are expected to split the distance medley relay duties for the longer lengths.

The men's 3k will be one to watch on Saturday, as junior Fred Huxham will be one of a handful of runners trying to make a late push in the top-16. Huxham ran a 7:56.98 PR two weeks ago and would need a time around 7:52 to potentially make nationals. Senior Andrew Gardner will also be looking to score with a 3k PR and Julius Diehr and Gavin Parpart will also be in the mix.

Defending MPSF Champion Chase Smith comes in with the top seed mark in the men's pole vault after making a new PR of 18-1 at the UW Indoor Open. He leads a group of five men's vaulters featuring Lev Marcus, Blaise Black, and Taylor Barnes, all in the top-10 in the MPSF rankings, and redshirt freshman Parker Kennedy. Freshman Jaylen Taylor will get his first shot in the triple jump.

In the throws, Lembcke may be ranked in the top-16 nationally but still is just fourth in a loaded men's shot put field. He'll battle there along with freshman Jonah Wilson. Redshirt freshman Connor Jost will go in the men's weight throw as well.