Huskies Finish MPSFs With Ten New Top-10 Marks

Saturday, February 23

Seattle, WA

10:00 AM

University of Washington

MPSF Championships

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

February 23, 2019 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

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

Complete Results PDF | Heptathlon Grid PDF | Pentathlon Grid PDF

SEATTLE – The Dawgs closed out the Dempsey today with ten new Top-10 marks and put another athlete into the NCAA Indoor picture in a successful run through the MPSF Championships. Washington will now make its declarations for the NCAA Indoor Championships and await to see which Huskies will make the cut for Birmingham.

The annual MPSF Championships, the indoor conference meet for the West Coast's top track teams, provided a chance for the Huskies to tune up the athletes they expect to advance to NCAA Indoors which are up on March 8-9, but also provided one of the best competitive opportunities of the year in a point-scoring format, and many Huskies made the most of that chance with big season or career-bests.

The major new addition to UW's postseason possibilities was Lilli Burdon, who ran her best race as a Dawg to date with a third-place finish in the 3,000-meters in 9:03.32. That is the fourth-fastest time in school history, just behind the mark Katie Rainsberger posted earlier this season of 9:02.84. Projections after the race estimated that Burdon would now rank 17th in the NCAA this season, with the top-16 making the NCAA field in each event.

"I thought Lilli was awesome, really by far her best race of the year," said Director of Track & Field Maurica Powell. "She missed a lot of training this summer and it's been months of building back up and I thought she looked the best she looked in a long time and like she's back in top form. Her time will be close to making it, but if she doesn't run the 3k she'll run the (distance medley relay) and I think whatever she runs at the NCAA meet she's going to run really well."

"For Izzi, running a couple shorter things was good for her 5,000, for Katie running a relay leg was good for her mile. Hannah Derby looked good today, so that was encouraging and Imani looked good all weekend. Allie Schadler ran a great 1,200 leg last night which will help her run the relay at the NCAA meet, so good tune-ups for those kids. Then really across the board just good, solid performances. I thought the vaulters yesterday and Hannah and Jelani were good, and all took good steps forward for the outdoor season."

Another Husky looking to crack the top-16 was sophomore Jonah Wilson in the shot put. Wilson added just slightly to his personal-best, tossing a mark of 63-4 to improve on his No. 4 mark in school history and place fourth in a loaded shot put field. But likely it won't be quite enough raise his ranking into the NCAA field. Still if that was his final indoor meet of the season it sets Wilson up for big things outdoors.

Jose Padilla also had the best shot put series of his Husky career despite just missing the final by one spot. He finished 10th with a best of 57-6 1/2 and that gets him into the indoor school top-10 list for the first time at No. 9.

111828 — ***Jonah Wilson placed fourth in the shot put with a PR of 63-4***

The top individual point scorer today was senior Connor Morello, who wrapped his Dempsey career with an indoor PR in the 800-meters as he ran 1:49.08, the No. 5 mark in school history. That was good for runner-up honors for Morello. Freshman Cass Elliott also scored a point with an eighth-place finish in 1:50.55, a small personal-best.

"Jonah was really close but that's a great indoor season for him, Coach Ninow did a really good job with him, and a lot of people had very improved indoor seasons that set them up well for the next four months," said Head Coach Andy Powell. "Jose Padilla and Jaylen Taylor got into our top-10 lists for the first time today. I thought Khalil scoring was really good. Connor Morello had a big personal-best in the 800, and Nate Beamer had a very good mile PR. So we are feeling pretty good going into the postseason with the guys that we were able to get tuned up this weekend."

The women's 800-meters saw another couple seniors close with indoor PRs, as Hannah Derby pushed the pace from the front for the duration of her heat and she took second in her heat and sixth overall in 2:06.98, improving on her own No. 4 mark in Husky history. Senior Nicole Goecke also claimed the No. 10 spot on the list with an indoor PR of 2:09.53.

Sprint highlights were led by senior Imani Apostol leaving the Dempsey on a high note as she broke the 55-second mark in the 400-meters for the first time, indoors or outdoors, with a time of 54.97. That was good for sixth-place today and jumped Apostol from out of the Husky top-10 list all the way up to No. 3. Carly Lester and Darhian Mills were 14th and 15th in times of 56.37 for Lester and 56.80 for Mills.

In the men's 60-meter dash final, Khalil Winfrey had a career-best MPSF finish as he took seventh today in 6.81 seconds. Jason Palmer hit his indoor PR exactly in the 400m as he ran 48.61 seconds to take 18th. Evan Mafilas also got back in action after missing some time and he ran 49.04.

The Husky 4x400m relays both ran season-bests to close things out today. The women went with a quartet of Lester, Mills, Derby, and Apostol and they ran 3:44.85 to finish sixth-place overall. The men led off with Winfrey then Mafilas, Palmer, and Kemuel Santana and they were seventh in a time of 3:14.19.

Another new entry into the Husky recordbooks was sophomore Jaylen Taylor, who added three inches to his PR in the triple jump today and that jumped him to No. 8 in school history. Taylor went 49-4 1/4 on his fourth attempt and that was good for fifth-place and four team points.

111829 — ***Connor Morello moved up to No. 5 in school history and was the 800m runner-up today in 1:49.09.***

In the men's mile, sophomore Nate Beamer lowered his PR for the third straight meet this season, as he clocked a time of 4:02.41 to take sixth. Allie Schadler and Anna Maxwell both ran to top-eight finishes in the women's mile, with Schadler taking fifth in 4:41.28 and Maxwell eighth in 4:43.97.

Along with Burdon's stellar run in the 3k, senior Izzi Batt-Doyle doubled back from anchoring the DMR last night and still managed to lower her PR in the 3k to 9:09.18 as she took seventh and improved her No. 8 mark on the top-10 lists. Senior Emily Hamlin was 22nd in the 3k in 9:34.70 while freshman Olivia O'Keeffe was 24th at 9:36.45.

In the men's 3k, Tanner Anderson was the top Husky finisher at 8:08.98 for 16th overall. Gavin Parpart ran 8:11.10, Julius Diehr went 8:12.41, and Isaac Mohn ran 8:15.31, all three doubling back from a 5k last night.

Sophomore Parker Kennedy also got in the point column and improved his own No. 8 mark in the Husky heptathlon list. Kennedy dug down for an all-out finish in the final event, the 1,000-meter run, as he went from third around the last turn to lean for the victory by .01 seconds in 2:42.89. That finished off a PR of 4,957 points as Kennedy finished seventh overall in his second career heptathlon.