SEATTLE – The Dawgs closed out their 2018 Dempsey season in the ideal fashion, winning the final event of the day, as the Husky men's 4x400-meter relay took the victory to wrap up the two-day MPSF Championships. Washington got its first 4x4 title at the MPSF meet since 2007 as junior Ryan Croson capped an impressive afternoon by taking UW from third to first on his anchor leg.
The MPSF, made up of every member of the Pac-12 plus several more schools from the Big West and West Coast Conferences, capped another conference meet inside UW's Dempsey Indoor with USC taking both team titles. The Huskies finished seventh on the men's side with 46.50 points and the women were ninth out of 22 squads with 30 points.
"It's always fun to finish with some good 4x4's," said Head Coach Greg Metcalf. "Our women, even changing some personnel, they ran great to go run 3:38. They had never run under 3:40 before this season and to go do it twice with two different groups is exciting. It's been fun to see Hanna Tarleton kind of transform into a really good long sprinter, and it was great to see Imani Apostol run somebody down on the anchor leg.
"The men, again missing a couple pieces, but we insert Kemuel Santana in there and he does a very nice job. Ryan Croson, he had such a great weekend, he ran 45-point on the 4x4, and he runs 46.84, number five all-time here, in what was maybe the best event of the entire weekend."
The men's 4x4 relay title was the third of the meet for the Dawgs, as they won the women's DMR last night as well as Chase Smith winning the men's pole vault.
"Looking back at last night, winning the DMR was a little bittersweet. It was great to get a win, but we're on the outside looking in to the NCAA Championships, which for Maddie Meyers is not how I wanted that to go, but she's had a very classy, memorable career.
"Chase Smith became the first Husky to win back-to-back MPSF titles last night and we've obviously had some outstanding pole vaulters so that's exciting for him and he looks ready for NCAAs," said Metcalf.
Four Huskies will now wait to see where all the marks fall from this final weekend as they look to advance to the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 9-10 in College Station, Texas. Jack Lembcke (shot put), Smith (pole vault), Amy-Eloise Neale (3,000m) and Colby Gilbert (3,000m) went into the weekend with top-16 marks nationally.
Metcalf saw a lot of progress and a lot of room to grow as the Dawgs transition to outdoors. "All in all this today we had a handful of ninth-place finishes and tenth-place finishes. Top to bottom it was a solid effort, but it wasn't perfect by any stretch. Midway through the year I like how we are competing but we need to fix a few things to be able to beat some good teams when the Pac-12 meet comes around in May."
The Husky quarter-milers made moves up the UW top-10 lists, showing their depth with fast relay times despite new lineups.
The men went with freshman Kemuel Santana to lead off then went with senior Jacopo Spanò, sophomore Jason Palmer, and Croson on the anchor. The Dawgs posted a winning time of 3:09.57, just better than their converted time from New Mexico two weeks ago. With Santana new to the lineup, that moves today's squad to No. 6 on the top-10 lists.
Croson also jumped up another spot on the individual 400-meter lists today as he finished fourth behind three Trojans who all broke the MPSF Meet Record and Dempsey Facility Record. The Trojans had three men between 45.94 and 45.96, the first ever sub-46.00 times in Dempsey history. Croson was the next finisher in a new PR of 46.84, moving up to No. 5 in school history. Freshman Evan Mafilas also had a big season-best with a time of 48.08 to finish 13th and Palmer ran 48.61 for 17th.
The women's relay, coming off its school record from two weeks ago, put Carly Lester into the mix today and turned in another excellent time, finishing third overall in 3:38.57. That was the second-fastest in school history, less than a second off the school record, and the fastest time the Dawgs have ever run in the Dempsey. Hanna Tarleton led off, passing to Lester, then Carolyn Birkenfeld and Imani Apostol anchored. Hanna Tarleton passes the baton to Carly Lester as the women run the No. 2 relay time in school history.
Earlier in the open 400's, Tarleton notched another big PR, crossing in 55.13 to finish 11th-place in a very deep field. That time moves Tarleton all the way up to fourth on the Husky indoor top-10 lists. Lester also had an indoor PR, running 55.97 for 18th, and Birkenfeld was 23rd in 56.37.
The women's mile final was easily the best in MPSF Championships history as four women ran under the old Meet Record. Senior Amy-Eloise Neale ran a season-best mile time of 4:38.36, but that would be good just for seventh-place in the fast heat.
Sixth-year senior Maddie Meyers saw her decorated Husky career come to a close today as she was 10th in the mile final in 4:41.33 after anchoring the Huskies to the win in the distance medley relay last night. Meyers was a five-time All-American for the Huskies, a two-time All-Pac-12 First Teamer in cross country, and ranks in the top-10 lists in five different events.
The men's mile saw a strong run from redshirt freshman Nate Beamer, who was one of the high scorers on the day for the Dawgs, taking fifth in 4:05.21. Redshirt freshman Nick Laccinole had a PR of 4:08.75 to finish 14th.
In the men's 3,000-meters, junior Fred Huxham took the lead in the top heat with two laps to go, but couldn't hold on, and dropped to 12th at the end in a time of 8:04.58. Andrew Gardner also ran the 3k in 8:09.17 and Gavin Parpart crossed in 8:11.61.
Elsewhere on the track, Mikelle Ackerley cut her 800-meter PR down to 2:11.68, and junior Emily Hamlin was 14th in the 3,000-meters in 9:39.99.
The major highlight in the field today was the outstanding men's shot put field with seven competitors ranked in the top-25 nationally coming into the meet. The winner was someone outside of that group, Nick Ponzio of USC who threw 64-4 ½. Husky junior Jack Lembcke had a couple frustrating fouls on some of his best throws, but still got in a best of 62-3 ¼, the second-best mark of his career. That was good just for seventh-place today but just seven inches out of fourth in a tight field.
There were only a couple more Dawgs in the field today. Freshman Jonah Wilson also threw the shot, placing 13th overall at 54-9 ½. Senior Gina Flint just missed scoring in the women's shot put by a fraction of an inch, as she placed ninth overall with a best toss of 50-0 ½.
In the high jump, Mayson Douglass cleared 5-3 ¼ to place 18th overall. Freshman Jaylen Taylor was 10th in the men's triple jump with a season-best mark of 46-7 ¼.
With the indoor season all but wrapped up, the Huskies will head outside for the first time on March 16-17, going to the Trojan Invitational in Los Angeles.
