Boase And Taiwo Add Titles As MPSF Concludes

Boase And Taiwo Add Titles As MPSF Concludes
Mel Lawrence breaks the women's 3k school-record with an NCAA Auto time.


Feb. 28, 2009


Complete Results


Heptathlon Scoresheet | Pentathlon Scoresheet

SEATTLE - The Washington track and field team won two more league titles and broke three indoor school records today as the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships drew to a close in the Dempsey Indoor.

Senior Jordan Boase (Bothell, Wash./Bothell) once again lowered his school record in the 400-meters, winning his second-straight MPSF title in 46.09 seconds. That also lowered the Dempsey facility record, and is the fastest in the NCAA and the fastest run by an American so far this year.

While Boase was victorious in his final MPSF meet, freshman Jeremy Taiwo (Renton, Wash./Newport) won the conference heptathlon title in his first meet. Taiwo scored a school-record 5,559 points in just his second collegiate heptathlon to take the win. The mark is a strong NCAA Provisional qualifier, and currently ranks sixth in the NCAA so Taiwo could be on his way to the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks.

As a team, the 22nd-ranked Husky men placed sixth, but were only four points out of second in a very tightly packed men's competition. The UCLA men jumped to the front thanks to 28.5 points in the final event, the men's pole vault, and won the title with 83.5 points. Cal and Washington State tied for second with 78.5 points, with No. 1-ranked Oregon finishing fourth with 78. 11th-ranked Arizona State was fifth with 76.5 points, and the UW was next in the pecking order with 75 points.

The 21st-ranked Husky women had three second- and three third-place finishes on Saturday to wind up in fifth in the team standings for the second year in a row. The 25th-ranked Stanford women broke Arizona State's two-year reign, finishing first with 115 points. No. 3 Oregon was second with 91.5 points, followed by No. 8 ASU (78), UCLA (75.5), and Washington with 72.5.





Redshirt freshman Mel Lawrence (Reno, Nev./Reno) blew past the 3,000-meter school record set just two weeks ago by teammate Katie Follett, running 9:08.50 to place second. The time is well under the NCAA Auto mark of 9:15.00, and would have been an MPSF Meet record had Stanford's Laurynne Chetelat not finished just in front of Lawrence in 9:08.15. Lawrence is now assured of a berth at NCAA Indoors and ranks fifth in the NCAA at 3k.

The Huskies went two and three in the women's mile run, with freshman Christine Babcock (Irvine, Calif./Woodridge) placing second in 4:39.44 and Follett (Fort Collins, Colo./Fort Collins) taking third in 4:40.83. Stanford's Lauren Centrowitz got the win in an MPSF record 4:39.00.

Falesha Ankton (Benicia, Calif./Benicia) added eight points for the women with her second-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles, as she crossed the line in 8.57 seconds. Ballard High grad Kailey Campbell ran the second-fastest 800-meter time in school history, as she PR'd by more than five seconds to place third in 2:07.85. Senior Daria Amiad-Pavlov also took third in the triple jump, and totaled 10 points for the meet between her triple jump and fifth-place pentathlon finish.

All told, the two day meet produced 11 NCAA Automatic qualifying mark and another 106 Provisional marks. Four MPSF records were also broken this year.

The Huskies also got a new NCAA qualifying mark from junior Jake Schmitt, who placed sixth in the 3k in 8:03.04, the fourth-best time in school history. Schmitt added three points to the 10 he won on Friday when he captured the 5k title. Freshman Ryan Soberanis was just two-hundredths of a second short of his first NCAA Provisional, as he took seventh in the 800-meters in 1:50.52.

For complete results visit www.GoHuskies.com.