The controlled temperature of 73 degrees was not the only thing that kept the WSU indoor facility warm this weekend at the 10th Annual Washington State Open Indoor track and field meet.

The talent competing within it was what really kept things toasty.

A slue of WSU athletes broke four meet records while tying two others in Saturday’s season opening meet. Though the meet only featured a handful of schools including Eastern Washington University, Whitworth University, Linfield College and University of Idaho, the Cougars came out strong in their first meet of the 2012 season.

Three Cougar men broke the men’s mile meet record in a first through fourth sweep. Sophomore Drew Jordan won the event with a lifetime-best time of 4:15.36 followed successively by teammates Andrew Gonzales, Justin Englund and Jono Lafler.

 "The milers did a respectable job today and Drew Jordan had a nice time for this early in the year when Coach Pete Julian is not stressing speed,” said Head Coach Rick Sloan.

 Other notable performances included WSU junior, Stephan Scott-Ellis, who won the long jump, setting another meet record of 23-10 1/4 (7.27m). 

Senior Chanel James led the WSU women in their first through fourth sweep of the 60 meter dash, while junior Brett Blanshan won the men’s 60 meter dash with a time of 6.99. Freshman Katie Fleischer won the women’s mile with a time of 5:18.55, while senior Emily Farrar defended her 3000m title with a time of 10:51.82.

 In field events, senior JoeBartlett won the men's shot put with a PR heave of 56-10 1/4 (17.33m) and sophomore ShantaeYoung took first in the women's long jump with a leap of 17-4 3/4 (5.30m).

The hot start should set the bar high for WSU’s track and field team this season. Sloan said he is confident in the talent of the team.

“This was a good start for the Cougars,” Sloan said. “We got our feet wet with competition this weekend.”

 In the team’s first meet since May, wet feet were all athletes and coaches expected over the weekend. Sloan said the event was a good chance to get a feel for the new faces on the team.

 “We saw some of the new people come in and a few of them performed well but most of them were still getting things figured out,” Sloan said.

A new season means a new group of athletes for the Cougars. The team is without their top athlete of last year, Jeshua Anderson, who won the 400 meter and 400 meter hurdles last spring at the Pac-10 championships.

Even without Anderson in the mix this season, Sloan remains optimistic.

“A lot of people just needed to get a competition under their belt,” Sloan said. “I think as we progress, they’ll settle down and start performing to the level we anticipate.”

Now that their feet are wet, the Cougars will compete again this weekend, Jan. 20 and 21, at the Cherry and Silver Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M.