At the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship (MPSF), the WSU Track and Field teams will have the chance to score highly against west coast competition, featuring Pac-12 competition.

Held at the Dempsey Indoor Facility on February 26-27 at the University of Washington, this meet brings together Pac-12 teams and other schools from the western United States. Brigham Young University, Long Beach State, the University of Portland and California State University, Northridge are among the participating schools along with other Pac-12 universities.

For the women’s team, it will specifically focus on Hawaii, Oregon State, UC Irvine, Utah and California State, Fullerton, schools only bringing their women’s team.

“It’s again one more opportunity in amazing competition,” Head Coach Wayne Phipps said in a press conference. “The distance races at this meet will rival everything except maybe the NCAA meet in terms of level of competition so it’s a great opportunity to face that competition, to help get some amazing times and to help move forward to the outdoor season as well.”

Last year at this meet, the men’s team placed tenth overall with 24.5 points and the women’s team finished a slightly higher with 36 points to place eighth among the competition.

For senior Travis Pickett, he expects to score well in the weight throw again as he did in his eighth place finish two years ago.

“It’s just setting up the routine and having a good mental strategy to where you are peaking where you need to be peaking,” Pickett said. “That’s kind of led up to me expecting to do well at this meet.”

Since his last meet at UW two weeks ago, Pickett has practiced hitting his personal records and proving to himself that he can execute at MPSF.

Although the technique is slightly different for high jumpers, the meet ends when a height cannot be reached, the mindset remains the same.

“I don’t always approach a meet with a number in mind, like a bar that I want to clear,” senior high jumper Audrey Ketcham said. “But I do always approach a meet knowing that I want to walk away with having learned something or having built upon the skills that I have already learned.”

Ketcham cleared 5-feet 9 1/4 inches for high jump at the Dom Kirby Elite Invite to push her to number one for Mount Pacs. She placed fourth officially in 2015 at this meet, giving her confidence heading into this weekend

Junior Kiana Davis in the high jump, junior pentathlete Alissa Brooks-Johnson, 200-meter specialists junior Danielle Darden and senior Dominique Keel senior pole vaulter Kristine Felix and senior triple jumpers Kayla Warren are all returning scorers in MPSF for the WSU women.

The Cougar men also bring back a strong scoring team with junior CJ Allen in the 400-meter sprint, senior Terrance Chambers for the 200-meter dash, junior heptathlete Dino Dodig, senior high jumper Thane Pierson, senior pole vaulter Austin Sodorff as well as Pickett for the weight throw.

“I want to drop jaws. I want people to go, ‘okay, wow, the Cougs are getting better,’” Pickett said. “I want to impress people. I want our team to come out, score points and place high and kind of give a ‘wow’ factor to us leading into the outdoor season.”

MPSF begins on Friday at noon and continues at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. The results will be posted live at wsucougars.com/Track&Field/Schedule/Results.