The Cougar track and field teams boasted a strong finish at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Championships in Seattle, including one major upset win during the final day of competition.  

On Friday, sophomore Kristine Felix finished as the runner-up in the pole vault after a technicality. The 2013 Pac-12 women’s pole vault champion cleared the bar with a height of 13 feet and 5 3/4 inches, but she missed on her first attempt, while Washington’s sophomore Kristina Owsinski won the event by clearing the same height on her first attempt.  

Freshmen Alissa Brooks-Johnson had one of the best weekends of her career by scoring a lifetime-best 3,633 points for seventh place in the women’s pentathlon. Brooks-Johnson’s total score is the fourth-best mark in the WSU all-time record books. She achieved it with three lifetime-best marks. Brooks-Johnson opened up the events by running the 60-meter hurdles in just 8.98 seconds, followed by a high jump of 5 feet and 3 3/4 inches, which is equivalent to her personal record height. She also ran the 800 meter and crushed her previous time by nearly four seconds, in a personal record time of 2 minutes and 19.96 seconds.   

“Alissa Brooks-Johnson was strong and competitive with another lifetime-best and school freshman record in the pentathlon,” Head Coach Rick Sloan said in a press release.  

Sophomore Dominique Keel recorded a solid outing in the women’s 200-meter dash with a personal record time of 24.39 seconds. Not to be outdone, sophomore Andre McBride finished a few seconds better in the same event for the men with a season-best time of 21.72 seconds for eighth place. 

On Saturday redshirt junior Jesse Jorgensen stole the show with an upset win in the men’s 800 race. Jorgensen ran a lifetime-best of 1 minute and 48.84 seconds to win the 800-meter indoor title among a very competitive field. Jorgensen’s time is also 16th best among NCAA Division I men and qualifies him for the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks. 

“I planned on staying in the top three for the race and then trying to out-kick them, and that’s pretty much what happened,” Jorgensen said. “There was a rabbit in the race, and (I) took it out really fast. I went out in a 51-high for the first 400 meters, which is very fast.” 

Sloan said he was excited to see Jorgensen run a lifetime-best time. 

Freshman Dino Dodig also made history for the Cougars by taking third place in the men’s heptathlon with a personal record of 5,503 points, which is the second-best total in WSU all-time records. Dodig suffered an injury in Friday’s long jump but was able to persevere on Saturday. The freshman ran the 60-meter hurdles in a time of 8.37 seconds and then cleared a personal record height of 15 feet and 7 inches in the pole vault. He capped off the events by running the 1,000-meter race in a time of 2:40.94. 

“Dino Dodig medaled in the heptathlon in spite of smashing his shin in the long jump Friday, but he just kept competing his way through the pain,” Sloan said.  “(Saturday) he came back and competed well in the hurdles and pole vault and then ran a gutsy 1,000 (meters) to move up from fourth to third place.”  

In the women’s events, redshirt junior Charlotte Muschamp struggled in the high jump after not clearing the bar, but she gained some momentum in the triple jump, soaring to a distance of 40 feet 4 inches for third place. 

Redshirt sophomore Candice McFarland captured fifth place in the women’s 60-meter hurdles with a personal record time of 8.50 seconds, which is good enough for a top-10 WSU record.  Senior Ruby Roberts grabbed fifth place in the 3,000 meter, and sophomore CharLee Linton paced herself to a personal record time of 9:51.52 in the same event. 

WSU finished in eighth place in the men’s team championship with 49.5 points, just a half point behind rival Washington who took seventh place with 50 points. The Cougar women finished in tenth place with 25.8 points, a half point ahead of Washington. 

“It is good to get some momentum as we move to the outdoor season,” Sloan said. “Some people who have been struggling during the indoor season got it going a little bit in this meet, so I’m hoping they can keep that momentum as we move outdoors and see them perform up at the level that we expect from them and what they expect of themselves.”