MPSF Championships Cap Off Dempsey Season

Friday, February 28

Seattle, WA

12:00 PM

University of Washington

MPSF Championships

February 26, 2020 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

BU Last Chance Meet
Thursday-Friday | Feb. 27-28
BU Track & Tennis Center
Meet Schedule | Live Results | Live Video

SEATTLE – The Dempsey track season comes to a close this Friday and Saturday with the best of the west coming together for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships. Washington plays host to the meet for the 17th year in a row with a field that includes 22 total teams, including every Pac-12 school.

The championships begin on Friday at 12 noon and runs until approximately 7:45 p.m. The first several hours on Friday will feature finals in the women's weight throw and women's pole vault, and the multi-events. Track races start at 4 p.m. on Friday with prelims of the 60m hurdles. Other field event finals held on Friday will include the men's pole vault and weight throw, and men's and women's long jumps. On the track, the men's and women's 5,000-meters, 200-meters, and distance medley relays will be contested, plus prelims for the 60-meter dashes.

Saturday picks back up at 10 a.m. Field events on Saturday include both men's and women's shot puts, high jumps, and triple jumps. Finals on the track will begin at 11 a.m. with the 60m hurdles finals, followed by the women's and men's mile runs, the 400-meters, 60-meter dash finals, 800-meters, 3,000-meters, and the 4x400m relays to finish the championships by approximately 3 p.m.

The MPSF Championships give athletes one great final chance to qualify for NCAA Indoors, or to close out their indoor seasons with personal-bests and carry momentum into the outdoor season. Washington will also be sending a small group of distance runners to the BU Last Chance Meet at the Boston Track & Tennis Center, with some looking to qualify for NCAAs, some tuning up for the indoor meet, and some looking for international qualifying times.

Huskies On Friday
The first event up will be one of the biggest of the weekend from a Husky point of view, as Angel Nkwonta competes in the weight throw along with freshman Beatrice Asomaning. Nkwonta goes into the meet seeded second in the MPSF and 19th nationally, less than a foot away from a top-16 spot and NCAA Indoor qualification.

Right after the weight throw starts, another one of the key events of the week kicks off, as Hannah Rusnak will look to post a top-16 mark nationally in the pentathlon. She'll get underway at 12:15 p.m. with the pentathlon hurdles. Men's heptathletes Parker Kennedy and Ollie Thorner also get underway with their second heptathlons of the season, and given that they rank 25th and 26th nationally coming in, the top-16 is within range if they can put together some personal-bests.

Senior Olivia Gruver will compete in uniform in the Dempsey for the final time on Friday, as she looks to capture the MPSF crown and fine-tune for NCAAs starting at 2 p.m. Also in the women's vault field are Makenna Barton, Annika Dayton, Ashleigh Helms, and Kim Kramers.

In the prelims of the 60m hurdles and dashes, the Huskies will have sophomore Aaliyah Wilson looking to build off her PRs in both events. She is seeded eighth in the hurdles and fourth in the dash coming in. The men feature Khalil Winfrey in the 60-meters, coming off a season-best 6.85 one week ago.

Jelani Heath got an indoor long jump PR last week and will look to add to that on Friday, as will Sam Richmond in the men's long jump, as he went 23-feet for a season-best last week.

In the men's weight throw at 5:15, Elijah Mason and Connor Jost have consistently pushed their PRs this season, and they come in seeded third and seventh, respectively, so they will look to put points on the board.

Senior Chase Smith comes into his final MPSF meet ranked 12th nationally in the pole vault and second in the conference as he tries to win a third indoor conference title. Zach Shugart, Sam Care, and Donald Jones will also look to finish their indoor season with some PRs.

Hannah Waskom and Kiera Marshall will take on the 5k on Friday evening for the women. Waskom comes in seeded seventh in the field. For the men, Jack Rowe is slated to step up and run his first 5k of the indoor season.

The men will finish out day one with an entry in the distance medley relay, though the women will not run it as they are certain of qualifying for nationals.

Huskies On Saturday
The first big event on Saturday will be the women's shot put, with Nkwonta coming back for a second event and joined by redshirt freshman Makayla Kelby, coming off consecutive PRs. Kelby ranks sixth and Nkwonta seventh in the conference coming in, but just a few inches out of the third spot.

In the women's mile, Anna Gibson will look to grab some points as she comes in seeded 11th. On the men's side, senior Dustin Nading is the top seed with his 3:59.25 time. He will likely need to shave some more tenths off of that to get under the NCAA top-16 cut-off. Nading will be joined by Isaac Green and Nate Beamer.

The 400-meter dashes will have Imani Apostol and Olivia Ribera racing for the women, and Evan Mafilas and Jason Palmer on the men's side.

Bryce Fausset enters as the ninth seed in the men's high jump and he'll look to improve on that and grab a PR and some points.

Sophomore Kelly Makin, redshirt freshman Madison Heisterman, and freshman Marlena Preigh all have a shot to score in the women's 800-meters. On the men's side, the Huskies have three of the top-five seeds, with Cass Elliott second, Daniel Maton third, and Devan Kirk fifth.

Junior Jaylen Taylor is the final field event competitor for the Dawgs, starting in the triple jump at 1:30 on Saturday. He comes in as the No. 4 seed.

Fields for the 3,000-meters are always subject to scratches, but in the initial listings, Jack Rowe leads the field with his 7:51.00 season-best. Luke Houser set the UW Freshman Record earlier this season and Tanner Anderson is also scheduled for the 3k. Also in the mix will be Julius Diehr and Alex Slenning. The women's 3k, with a total of 78 entries at the moment, should feature Huskies Haley Herberg, Shona McCulloch, and Kaitlyn Neal.

Huskies In Boston
Eight distance Dawgs will be in Boston on Thursday and Friday. Starting on Thursday with the men's 1,500-meters (yes, that's 1,500-meters as opposed to the typical indoor mile) freshman Sam Tanner will compete along with Husky volunteer assistant coach Sam Prakel.

On Friday, a loaded field of pros awaits freshman Carley Thomas in the women's 800-meters, as she runs on the same track where she opened her season with a school record 2:03.06 in January. Mick Stanovsek will also focus on the 800-meters for the second-straight week, coming off a PR of 1:48.82 last week that has him ranked 16th in the NCAA.

Katie Rainsberger, qualified for NCAAs in the 3k and on the DMR, will run a 1,500-meters on Friday in another loaded field that includes former Husky great Katie Mackey.

Friday's men's miles feature Sam Ritz, with Tanner and Stanvosek both entered as well.

In the women's 3,000-meters, Allie Schadler and Mel Smart will try to crack the top-16 for nationals.

Former Huskies Fred Huxham and Amy-Eloise Neale are also entered in the 5k fields in Boston.