Feb. 24, 2012

Results

SEATTLE -- Washington State University's Stephan Scott-Ellis won the men's long jump with a lifetime-best leap Friday at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships at the Dempsey Indoor Facility in Seattle.

Scott-Ellis, a junior from Tacoma, claimed the long jump title with a personal-record and the 10th-best mark in WSU history of 25-feet, 5 1/4 inches (7.75m). All three of Scott-Ellis' attempts were lifetime-best marks with his winning mark a nine-inch improvement from his previous best. He opened the competition with a leap of 24-11 3/4 (7.61), landed the winning-mark on his second attempt, and reached 25-0 3/4 on his third attempt. He passed on his final three attempts to conserve energy for Saturday's triple jump, an event he currently has the eight-best mark in the nation.

"When the ASU jumper (second place Chris Benard) opened up with a 25-1, that hyped me up," Scott-Ellis said. "On my second jump I got great support from the crowd with the clapping and that just all together helped me to jump far with that semi-home meet feel."

Jono Lafler (junior, Maple Valley, Wash.) scored points for the Cougar men with his fifth-place finish in the 5000m with a PR time of 13-minutes, 54.74 seconds. Also competing in the 5k final, Andrew Gonzales finished 13th in a time of 14:16.45, and Justin Englund placed 20th with a PR time of 14:24.70.

Cindy Robinson (junior, Norwalk, Calif.) was the eighth qualifier for the women's 60m dash final after running a PR time of 7.58 in the prelims which ties the sixth-best time in WSU history. Later Friday night, Robinson came back onto the track and scored fourth place in the 200m dash finals with a PR time of 24.42. Shawna Fermin (junior, Victorville, Calif.) scored with a seventh-place finish in a time of 24.56. Cougars Chanel James finished 15th in the 200m with a time of 24.84 and Holly DeHart's PR time of 25.57 was 27th.

The men's distance medley relay scored points as the squad of David Hickerson, J Hopkins, Mack Young and Drew Jordan finished seventh in a time of 10:02.38. The women's DMR of Ruby Roberts, Brittnay Crabb, Courtney Zalud and Caroline Austin did not fare as well, finishing 10th with a time of 11:33.46.

In the men's 200m final, Rashaun Johnson was the top Cougar in 14th (21.97), with Brett Blanshan 16th (22.01), Dana Wells 17th (22.05), and Richard Wilhite 22nd (22.20).

Shaquana Logan, a junior from Tacoma, finished ninth in the women's pentathlon after scoring 3,609 points in her first indoor multi-event competition. Logan ran the 60m hurdles in 8.55 which was the top time of the 22 competitors. She cleared a PR high jump bar of 4-11 3/4 (1.52m), threw the shot put a PR distance of 33-6 3/4 (10.23m), long jumped 17-7 (5.36m) and finished with an 800m PR time of 2:25.21, the sixth-fastest time of the pent. Logan also took a break from the pentathlon to qualify for the 60m hurdles final after running a prelim time of 8.50, which was eighth-best.

Michael Bolligar, a junior from Peoria, Ariz., is in second place after the first day of the men's heptathlon with 3,040 points. Bolligar ran the 60m dash in a time of 7.24, long jumped a PR distance of 23-8 1/4 (7.22m) which was the second-best mark on the day, threw the shot put a PR toss of 36-11 1/2 (11.26m), and cleared 6-7 (2.01m) in the high jump. Dakotah Keys of Oregon leads the heptathlon with 3,177 points.

A trio of Cougar men qualified for the Saturday 60m hurdles final. In the preliminary heats, freshman Aric Walden (Newport, Wash.) ran a time of 8.19 for fifth with Josiah Sims (junior, Tacoma) seventh in a time of 8.34 and Garrett Gerling (redshirt freshman, Walla Walla) eighth in a time of 8.41.

In other Friday finals, Cassie Whitfield (senior, Spanaway, Wash.) heaved the weight throw 51-9 1/4 (15.78m) for 13th place. John Brenteson (sophomore, Vancouver, Wash.) pole vaulted 15-8 1/4 (4.78m) for 16th while Jake Baertlein (senior, Portland, Ore.) did not clear a bar.

In the team scoring, Arizona State leads both the men's and women's standings with the Cougar men seventh and the WSU women 10th. The MPSF Championships continue Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Dempsey Indoor Facility.