Productive Field Day For Huskies At MPSFs

Friday, February 22

Seattle, WA

12:00 PM

University of Washington

MPSF Championships

February 22, 2019 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

2019 MPSF Championships
Friday-Saturday, Feb. 22-23
Dempsey Indoor

Day One Results PDF | Pentathlon Grid PDF

MPSF Championships Home Page | Meet Schedule | Heat Sheets | Live Results

SEATTLE – Day one of the MPSF Championships went as planned for the Husky track squad, with some of the team's probably NCAA Indoor qualifiers getting a good tune-up, and several other Dawgs ending their indoor seasons with season or career-bests to pick up points for the team score.

The MPSF meet will wrap tomorrow and bring the Dempsey Indoor season to a close along with it. The final day gets going at 10 a.m. tomorrow. The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships features twenty-two of the top indoor track teams in the West, including all twelve Pac-12 schools.

It was a productive day for the Huskies as eight individuals scored top-eight finishes to earn points for the team standings, and the night ended with both distance medley relays running strong with lineups geared to get work for UW's NCAA qualifiers.

The first points of the meet came from senior Onyie Chibuogwu in the women's weight throw. In her final indoor competition, Chibuogwu threw threw 61-11 3/4 on her third attempt to wind up in fourth-place and score five points for the Dawgs.

The high point scorer today was sophomore Hannah Rusnak, who worked her way to a career-day in the pentathlon, scoring 3,848 points to finish as the MPSF runner-up. That score also moved Rusnak up to No. 3 in school history.

Rusnak ran the fastest 60-meter hurdles in the field, going 8.46 seconds to win that event while junior Elinor Jones Toutant had a PR of 9.15 seconds. In the high jump, Rusnak cleared 5-2 1/4 and Jones Toutant made 4-10 1/2.

In the pentathlon shot put, Rusnak had an indoor PR of 39-7 3/4 to take second in that event, while Jones Toutant also PR'd at 31-5 3/4. Another PR for Rusnak came in the long jump where she went 18-9, and she finished with a third straight PR in the 800-meters, running 2:30.88. Jones Toutant also ended up with a PR score of 3,163 points for 16th-place.

The women's pole vaulters had a strong day today led by Annika Dayton and Makenna Barton who finished fifth and sixth, respectively, with new indoor PRs. Dayton cleared her first five bars all on first attempts, with indoor PRs at 13-3 and 13-5. She then had a third-attempt clearance at 13-7 before finally going out attempting 13-9. That 13-7 mark moves Dayton in to the No. 9 spot on the Husky top-10 list.

Barton came in with a PR of 12-6 3/4 but she made three-straight PRs, the final one coming at 13-feet, 3-inches, as the sophomore added nearly nine inches to her PR today.

Allyson Ely also had a PR of 12-1 1/4 and Monica Cohen also made that height as they finished 15th and 16th, respectively.

111821 — ***Annika Dayton made an indoor PR of 13-7 to go to No. 9 on the Husky top-10 list in the pole vault.***

In the men's vault, junior Zach Shugart picked up a couple points with a seventh-place finish from a make of 15-11 3/4.

Long jumpers Jelani Heath and Sam Richmond also got into the point column for the Dawgs. Heath had a season-best of 19-1 1/4 on her first attempt, and then hit that same mark again on her fifth jump, as she finished seventh. Richmond went 23-2 on his second attempt to wind up eighth and grab one point in his first conference meet.

Associate Head Coach Toby Stevenson had six of UW's eight individual point scorers from his group.

"We had been really focusing and training for the conference meet for the vault group so Annika and Makenna came through really well today, with two lifetime-bests for Makenna and an indoor PR for Annika," said Stevenson. "Hannah in the pentathlon, that was a three-hundred point PR for her today. She's still a couple hundred points away from that national level but that was great for her to be able to take second-place. Then in the long jumps, Jelani and Sam weren't supposed to score but they came ready to compete and executed early to get to the finals."

Closing out the night was the distance medley relays. The Husky women's team went with a group of Allie Schadler on the opening 1,200-meters, then Imani Apostol on the 400-meters, Katie Rainsberger dropping down to 800-meters, then Izzi Batt-Doyle running the final 1,600-meters and carrying a baton for the first time in her career. The Huskies finished third in 11:12.58 for six points.

The men's DMR featured Talon Hull on the opening leg, Jason Palmer for 400-meters, Mick Stanovsek on the 800-meters, and Fred Huxham on the mile anchor. The men came through for fourth in 9:45.19. The times posted earlier this season by both the men's and women's DMRs remain in the top-12 nationally, the ranking needed for NCAA selection.

The other point scorer today was Gavin Parpart who ran a big indoor PR in the 5,000-meters to take eighth in 14:03.85. Redshirt freshman Tibebu Proctor was 16th in 14:17.06, freshman Isaac Mohn was 18th in 14:22.16, and junior Julius Diehr was 19th in 14:22.19. For the women, redshirt freshman Sarah Carter just missed scoring as she was ninth in the 5k in 17:15.39.

Sprint highlights today included junior Khalil Winfrey advancing into the final of the 60-meter dash, as he ran 6.80 today in his preliminary heat. Jordan Lucas was 18th overall at 6.90. Kemuel Santana took 16th in the 200-meters in 21.87. For the women, Assa Kaba was 28th in the 60-meter prelims in a time of 7.72 seconds.

Redshirt freshman Elijah Mason took 11th in the weight throw today, just a centimeter off his PR at 59-9 and junior Connor Jost was 13th at 58-6 3/4.

Sophomore Parker Kennedy opened up his heptathlon effort with a PR in the 60-meter dash, running 7.15 seconds. He also had a shot put PR of four-and-a-half feet at 36-7 3/4 and he finished day one with 2,595 points to sit in ninth-place.