Huskies Seventh, Eighth As MPSFs Close Dempsey

Saturday, February 25

Seattle, Wash.

10:30 AM

University of Washington

MPSF Indoor Championships

February 25, 2017 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

MPSF Championships
February 24-25, 2017 - Dempsey Indoor

Complete Results (PDF) - Complete Results (HMTL) - Pentathlon Grid - Heptathlon Grid

SEATTLE – Washington wrapped up another Dempsey Indoor season today with the final day of the MPSF Championships, and will now turn its attention to the NCAA Championships before heading outside for the spring. Senior sprinters Laura Anuakpado and Kennadi Bouyer led the way for the Dawgs with Anuakpado shattering the UW 400-meter school record and Bouyer taking third in the 60m final.

Hosting the MPSF meet for the 14th straight season, the Huskies finished seventh overall out of the 20 women's teams with 41 points, as USC took the title with 125. The Oregon men were victorious with 89 points while the Huskies finished eighth with 44.5

Anuakpado, a senior transfer from UNLV, was in the third-fastest heat, but she dominated her section, easing across the line in 53.34 seconds. That would be faster than all the times from the second-fastest section, and all but three from the top heat, putting Anuakapado fourth overall. The top three finishers all rank in the top-17 nationally, while Anuakpado's time should put her at roughly 30th in the NCAA this year. It broke Jordan Carlson's 2013 school record of 53.75 by over four tenths of a second.

Capping the day off, Anuakpado also anchored the women's 4x400m relay which also took fourth overall in a time of 3:43.22. Whitney Diggs led off, passing to Imani Apostol, then Hannah Derby, with that foursome now moving to No. 3 on the Husky top-10 list, the third different 4x4 to post a top-10 mark this season.

Bouyer had another great run in the 60-meter dash final today, but will have to anxiously wait and see if her time holds up to get her to a second-straight NCAA Indoor meet. Bouyer matched her season-best once again in the finals today at 7.28 seconds, taking third overall.

Also running third today was junior Amy-Eloise Neale in the top section of the women's mile. Neale worked her way up from the middle of the pack into third-place late, but could not quite track down the leaders, coming across the line in 4:36.40, the second-fastest mile of her career.

"Laura Anuakpado has come right in and continues to energize our entire team," said Head Coach Greg Metcalf. "She is really making quite an impression in her one year as a Dawg so far and there's much more to come. Kennadi ran great again today, it's going to be just like it was last year where we're crossing our fingers and hoping she gets to nationals but we know if she gets in she can do some damage there."

"With Colby Gilbert, Amy-Eloise Neale, Chase and Elizabeth in the vaults, and hopefully Kennadi as well, that will be a really fun group to watch in Texas in two weeks," Metcalf said. "For the rest of the team, we saw a lot of people make positive strides this indoor season, and for those athletes that are not where they want to be, there's still a long outdoor season to get on track. We'll get to add some more pieces back outdoors like Kristina Owsinski and Carson Fuller, so it will be fun to see where the team goes from here."

Another big point scorer today was junior Casey Burns in the men's triple jump. Burns, the 2015 Pac-12 runner-up, was a runner-up again today with a best of 49-5 ¾. In the women's triple, senior Alanna Coker was 10th with a best of 38-4, just missing the final by one inch.

The men's heptathlon came to a close with the final three events today, and junior Cole Jensen came on strong to finish fourth overall with 5,424 points, just 33 points off his career-best. Junior Josh Gordon also was eighth with 5,325 points. Jensen had an indoor pole vault PR of 15-9. Gordon was just off his 60m hurdles PR of 8.41, as he ran 8.43 today to take fifth in that event, and he was sixth in the final 1,000-meters in 2:44.86.

Running in his first career MPSF final, senior Lucas Strong could not quite match his acceleration from the prelims, but still finished seventh overall for his first two individual points in 6.86 seconds.

The Husky men's 4x4 had a season-best time of 3:12.85 to place seventh overall, with Ryan Croson, Andrew Brown, Michael Thomas, and Jacopo Spanò carrying the baton. Croson had an indoor PR of 48.01 seconds earlier in the day in the open 400-meters, finishing 13th overall.

Blake Nelson and Hannah Derby each picked up points with eighth-place finishes. Nelson was eighth in the mile in 4:04.34, while Derby picked up a point with an eighth-place finish in the 800-meters, going 2:10.43.

In the women's 3k, sophomore Emily Hamlin ran a big career-best of 9:32.32 to finish 16th overall, and senior Josephine Bosserman also had a significant best of 9:53.84. Mahmoud Moussa was 18th in the 3k for the men in 8:11.49, while freshman Gavin Parpart was 20th at 8:12.26.

The lone thrower today was freshman shot putter Jose Padilla, who was 17th today with a toss of 54-2 ¾.

While a select few Huskies head to NCAAs in College Station, the rest of the squad will turn its attention to the outdoor campaign, which begins March 17-18 at the Trojan Invitational in Los Angeles.