SEATTLE โ Washington pocketed two conference titles on the first day of the MPSF Indoor Track & Field Championships, winning the men's pole vault and the women's distance medley relay both for the fifth time in program history. The Huskies now have one last day of Dempsey competition ahead of them on Saturday before the NCAA Indoor meet and the outdoor season arrives.
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Junior Chase Smith became the first Husky men's vaulter to win a pair of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation titles, as he successfully defended his crown today with a stress-free series. Smith had first-attempt makes at three bars, and was the only vaulter over 17-4 ยฝ to get the win. He then raised it up to a potential PR height of 18-2 ยฝ but didn't make that today. Smith should be solidly in the field of 16 for a second NCAA Indoor appearance.
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The women's distance medley relay bounced back strong today after a tough race last week in Notre Dame. The same group ran for the third time this season, Anna Maxwell to Raquel Tjernagel, then Hannah Derby and Maddie Meyers anchoring. Maxwell and Tjernagel both handed off in the lead and Derby then opened up a sizeable lead so Meyers ran all alone for her full mile. The Dawgs won in a season-best time of 11:07.43, the sixth-fastest mark in school history, but that only puts them 17th nationally this season, with the top-12 earning NCAA spots. Still, it was the first DMR win for UW since 2014.
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Chase Smith going up and over to win the pole vault tonight in the Dempsey.
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Along with the two victories, the Huskies had 10 more point scorers today, and three more top-10 marks for the recordbooks. With seven of the 17 events scored on the women's side, Washington is sixth out of the 22 women's MPSF teams with 22 points as USC leads with 49. On the men's side, six events are final, with the Huskies fourth with 25.5 points trailing BYU which leads with 34.5.
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It wasn't just Smith today in the men's vault, as four Huskies finished in the top-eight. Senior Lev Marcus cleared 17-0 ยพ to take runner-up honors and add eight points. Sophomore Zach Shugart made a season-best 16-8 ยพ to finish seventh, and junior Blaise Black was eighth at 16-4 ยพ.
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After the women's DMR, the next-highest scorer for the women today was redshirt freshman Angel Nkwonta, who delivered a huge weight throw PR on her final attempt of the season. Nkwonta squeaked into the nine-woman final in ninth-place, then after fouls on her fourth and fifth attempts, she put it together and threw a mark of 63-0 ยผ, jumping from ninth up to fifth-place. That was a PR of more than two feet, and improved her standing at No. 2 on the Husky top-10 list. It also broke the freshman school record of 61-1 ยฝ set in 2008 by Elisa Bryant, who went on to establish the school record of 65-8 ยพ.
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Freshman Hannah Rusnak was the busiest Husky today, as the only multi-event competitor for the Dawgs. She set personal-bests in four of the five pentathlon events to finish with 3,550 points, good for eighth-place and also the No. 10 mark in school history. Rusnak opened with a 60m hurdles PR of 8.65 seconds, then high jumped 5-0 ยผ. She was second in the pentathlon shot put with a three-foot PR of 39-4, and then long jumped 17-9 ยพ. Rusnak ended with an 800m best of 2:40.14.
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In the sprints, freshman Iman Brown had her streak of breaking her own 200-meter school record put on pause, but she still ran under the pre-2018 record once again today, taking seventh in the dynamic field in 23.81 seconds. Brown also ran the 60-meters for the first time this season, finishing 11th overall in 7.55 seconds, good for 10th in school history. Also in the women's sprints, Sarah Stavig had a 200m season-best of 25.03 and Imani Apostol ran 25.01, with Stavig also running 7.67 for the 60-meters.
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On the men's side, sophomore Christian Young had a big PR of four-tenths in the 200-meters, and he just missed scoring, placing 10th overall in 21.91 seconds. Freshman Kemuel Santana ran 22.27 for 19th and freshman Kevin Liu ran 22.62. In the 60-meters, sophomore Khalil Winfrey was 12th at 6.95 seconds, Young ran seven-flat and Liu ran 7.03.
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In the hurdles, Darhian Mills posted an 8.86 time and Morganne Hill had a season-best 8.92-second run. Senior Eric Simpson finished the men's high hurdles in 8.50.
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Two more points were picked up tonight in the women's 5k, as freshman Camila David-Smith ran the distance for the first time and placed seventh in 16:41.48, just three seconds off the top-10 list. Senior Madeleine Westerhoff was 12th overall in 16:55.57, an indoor PR.
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An all-freshman or redshirt-freshman men's distance medley relay ran solid to take fourth-place and pick up five points. Nate Beamer led off then passed to Santana for the 400-meters, on to Devan Kirk for the 800m leg and Nick Laccinole over the final 1,600-meters, as the group ran 9:52.86.
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???? a huge PR for @nkwontswa33 on her final throw jumps her from 9th to 5th-place?? she threw 63-0 1/4 improving on her 2nd best mark in school history. What a way to start off #MPSFpic.twitter.com/21GDPPHb7M
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Also getting in the point column were women's vaulters Annika Dayton and Tori Franzen. Dayton made 12-9 ยฝ on her first attempt to finish seventh for two points, and Franzen made the same height on her second attempt to place eighth and earn one point for the Dawgs. Freshman Makenna Barton was 11th with a clearance of 12-3 ยฝ.
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In the women's long jump, freshman Jelani Heath made the final but just missed scoring by one spot, as she finished ninth with a best jump of 18-11 ยพ on her third attempt.
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Redshirt freshman Connor Jost ended his first indoor campaign with a PR in the weight throw, as he went 54-6 ยพ to finish 16th overall.
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