Track and field competes in conference championships
Cougars send 54 athletes to Seattle for championship meet
Then-junior distance runner Janet Okeago pulls ahead in the women’s 5,000-meter run on April 27 at Mooberry Track.
February 28, 2020
The WSU track and field squad hits the road again this weekend as the Cougars sets their sights on the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Championship in Seattle. The MPSF is the conference that WSU competes in for indoor track and field.
The Cougars will send 27 athletes from both the men’s and women’s squads over to the Dempsey Indoor in Seattle.
The meet will take place across Friday and Saturday. The doors will open for fans at 10 a.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. on Saturday.
On Friday, the meet will start with the women’s weight throw final at noon and end at 7:25 p.m. with the men’s distance medley final.
On Saturday, the event will begin at 10 a.m. with the women’s high jump final and end at 2:55 p.m. with the men’s 4×400 meter relay final.
Sophomore Charisma Taylor will look to continue her streak of impressive performances in the triple jump this weekend. She will be jumping in the event finals at noon on Saturday along with freshman Bryana Rodgers.
Taylor will also compete in the women’s 60-meter hurdles prelims at 4 p.m. on Friday and the finals will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Sophomore Mackenzie Fletcher and junior Kreete Verlin will also be participating in that event.
Verlin, freshman Skylar Walton and senior Jordyn Tucker will run in the 60-meter dash prelims which will take place at 5 p.m. on Friday. The finals for that event will take place at 12:40 p.m. on Saturday.
The last event Verlin will participate in is the long jump finals at 5:15 p.m. on Friday. She will be joined by senior Lauren Newman and sophomore Anna Rodgers.
Junior twin sisters Zorana Grujic, Jelena Grujic along with senior Kaili Keefe will be running in the 800-meter run final at 12:50 p.m. on Saturday.
The Grujic sisters and Keefe will also run in the mile run final with senior Marie Gaudin. That event will take place at 11:10 a.m. on Friday.
Those three will team up with redshirt senior Stephanie Cho for the distance medley relay at 7:10 p.m. on Friday.
Cho will also run in the 400-meter dash final at 11:50 a.m. on Saturday and the 4×400 meter relay at 2:30 p.m. on the same day. Fletcher will also compete in those two events.
Their teammates in the relay will be freshmen Jasneet Nijjar and Elise Unruh- Thomas, who are also running the 200-meter dash. The finals for the 200 will be at 6:20 p.m. on Friday.
Nijjar is the only Cougar participating in the pentathlon. That event will take place throughout the day on Friday, starting with the 60-meter hurdles at 12:15 p.m. and ending with the 800-meter run at 5:30 p.m.
Senior Melissa Hruska and sophomore Erin Mullins will run in the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter runs. The 5,000 will take place at 5:40 p.m. on Friday and the 3,000 will take place at 1:20 p.m. on Saturday.
Redshirt freshman Tayla Beavers, junior Emily Coombs and junior Luzia Herzig will compete in the women’s pole vault final at 2 p.m. on Friday.
Three throwers for the Cougars will compete at the conference championship meet. Senior Chrisshnay Brown will participate in the shot put final at 10:30 a.m. and senior Stacia Bell and redshirt freshman Faimalie Sale will be in the weight throw final.
The men’s side will be led by senior Emmanuel “RayRay” Wells Jr. who will be competing in the 60-meter dash along with redshirt senior Ja’Maun Charles. The prelims for the men’s 60-meter dash will be at 5:15 p.m. and the final will be at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday.
Charles will also run in two other events, the 200-meter dash final at 6 p.m. on Friday and the 4×400 meter relay. Junior Jamaal Palmer is racing in the 200 as well.
Charles’s teammates in the relay will be senior Corey Allen, freshman Jared McAlvey and junior Jake Ulrich.
McAlvey will also compete in the 60-meter hurdles with seniors Sam Brixey and Nick Johnson. The prelims for that event will be at 4:45 p.m. on Friday and the finals will be at 11:05 a.m. on Saturday.
Ulrich is running in two other events, one of which is the 400-meter dash final at 12:20 p.m. on Saturday. He will also team up with junior Zach Stallings and redshirt seniors Reid Muller and Chandler Teigen for the distance medley relay final.
Muller, Stallings and Teigen will also compete in the mile run final at 11:35 a.m. on Saturday with freshmen Brian Barsaiya and Sam Griffith.
Redshirt sophomore Amir Ado, senior Cameron Dean, redshirt junior Colton Johnsen and juniors Jacob Nicholson and Matthew Watkins will compete in the 3,000-meter run final at 1:20 p.m. on Saturday.
Dean, Nicholson and Watkins will also run in the 5,000-meter run final at 6 p.m. on Friday.
Senior Justin Janke will run in the 800-meter run final at 1:10 p.m. on Saturday.
For the field events, senior Max English, juniors Mitch Jacobson and Beau Sheeran and freshmen Taino Ferdinand and Daylon Hicks will participate in the high jump final at noon on Friday.
The pole vault will have two Cougars competing. Sophomore Jacob Englar and senior Troy Gingerich will compete in the final at 5:30 p.m.
Sophomore Dillon Lionello will be the only male thrower for the Cougars. He will participate in the shot put final at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday.
The MPSF Indoor Championships will begin at noon on Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday at Dempsey Indoor in Seattle.