SEATTLE -- Washington State's Liz Harper captured the women's pentathlon title Friday during the first day of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships at the Dempsey Indoor Facility.
 
Harper, a senior from Missoula, Mont., won the 23-woman pentathlon with a score of 4,014 points. Fellow Cougar Lindsey Schauble (sophomore, Kennewick, Wash.) took ninth place with a personal-best total of 3,558 points, just 13 points below the final scoring spot.
 
Harper opened with a 60m hurdles time of 8.62 seconds, second-fastest in the field, high jumped 5-feet, 7 inches (1.70m), threw the shot put a PR distance of 40-1 1/4 (12.22m), long jumped 17-11 3/4 (5.48m) and ran the 800m in a time of 2 minutes 21.88 seconds. Harper's PR pentathlon score is 4,146 points, tallied in her runner-up performance at the 2016 MPSF Championships.
 
Schauble ran a PR time in a 60m hurdles of 9.14, cleared a PR height of 5-3 1/4 (1.61m) in the high jump, threw the shot put a PR of 34-5 1/2 (10.50m), long jumped 17-1 1/4 (5.21m), and ran the 800m in a time of 2:25.48. Schauble's 3,558 points is an improvement but keeps her at seventh-best in WSU all-time records.
 
The men's distance medley relay finished third with a time of 9:49.78. The relay squad was Nathan Tadesse (redshirt freshman, Surrey, B.C.), Matthew Swanson (redshirt senior, North Vancouver, B.C.), Paul Ryan (redshirt freshman, Moscow, Idaho), and Chandler Teigen (sophomore, Anatone, Wash.) and was running the event for the first time this season.
 
Two Cougar men scored in the 35-pound weight throw. Brock Eager, a junior from Renton, Wash., placed sixth with his throw of 62-5 1/4 (19.03m) with Travis Pickett (redshirt senior, Snohomish, Wash.) seventh with a PR heave of 61-7 3/4 (18.79m). Also competing was Adam Mahama who threw a distance of 55-5 3/4 (16.91m) for 18th.
 
Kristine Felix (redshirt senior, Wailuku, Hawai'i) pole vaulted to sixth place with a height of 13-0 1/4 (3.97m) while Molly Scharmann (redshirt freshman, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.) tied for eighth place after also clearing 13-0 1/4 which was a PR height for her by over a foot. Also reaching a PR height was Danielle Carnahan with a clearance at 12-0 1/2 (3.67m) for 18th. Katelyn Frost vaulted 11-7 1/2 (3.52m) for 30th.
 
Junior Devon Bortfeld (Sammamish, Wash.) continued her assault on the WSU women's distance records with her seventh-place finish in the 5,000m. Bortfeld ran a PR time of 16:16.42, which improved her school indoor record time and is the third-fastest in WSU women's all-time records. Bortfeld was the first of five WSU women who ran PRs in the 5k: Vallery Korir's 16:46.73 was 13th; Emily Dwyer's 16:51.51 was 19th; Morgan Willson's 16:56.12 was 21st; and Melissa Hruska's 17:36.12 was 23rd.
 
Katie Wardsworth (redshirt junior, Spokane Valley, Wash.) claimed eighth place in the women's 20-pound weight throw with a PR heave of 58-7 1/2 (17.87m), seventh-best in school history. Aoife Martin threw a PR distance of 52-4 1/2 (15.96m) for 20th place at the meet but it is the ninth-best in school records..
 
Sam Levora just missed scoring in the men's 5000m race with his PR time of 14:09.40 for ninth. Also racing were Michael Williams (14:18.38 - 17th) and Nathan Wadhwani (14:32.11 - 23rd).
 
Anden Lewis cleared 15-11 3/4 (4.87m) for 11th place in the men's pole vault while Tucker Mjelde did not clear a bar.
 
In the men's 60m hurdle preliminary heats, all four Cougars advanced to the eight-man final. Abu Kamara led the Cougs with a prelim time of 8.01 which is fifth-best of the qualifying heats, followed by Sam Brixey's 8.03 (6th), CJ Allen's 8.05 (7th), and Christapherson Grant's PR time of 8.05 (8th).
 
Ja'Maun Charles ran the 60m dash prelims in a time of 6.78, sixth-best out of the qualifying heats and he advances to the Saturday final. Cougars who also raced in the prelims were Zach Smith with a time of 7.00 (17th) and Ethan Gardner with a time of 7.01 (18th). Charles led the Cougar men in the 200m final with a time of 21.75 for 11th, followed by Gardner's 22.09 for 16th.
 
The WSU women in the 60m dash prelims were shut out of the final; Regyn Gaffney's 7.55 was tied at 18th, Jordyn Tucker's 7.72 was 25th, Tierney Silliman's PR time of 7.76 was 30th, and Danielle Darden's 7.86 was 37th. In the women's 200m final, Gaffney's 24.86 was 12th, Silliman's 24.93 was 16th, Tucker's 25.28 was 25th, and Darden's 25.69 was 35th.
 
It was a tough night for the women long jumpers. Greer Alsop finished 15th with a mark of 18-0 1/4 (5.49m) while McKenna Hogan was 22nd after jumping 17-4 3/4 (5.30m) and Lauren Newman was 25th with a mark of 17-0 (5.18m).
 
The women's distance medley relay team of Grace Victor, Marlow Schulz, Natalie Ackerley and Morgan Lash ran a time of 12:01.11 for 10th place.
 
In women's team scoring after seven events, USC leads with 51 points followed by: 2) Colorado 32, 3) UCLA 26.33, 4) Arizona State 21, 5) Oregon 21, 6) Washington 18, 7) Washington State 16.50, 8) Cal St. Northridge 15.33, 9) Utah 15, 10) California 14.33, 11) Stanford 14, 12) Oregon State 11, 13) Long Beach St. 8, 14) BYU 6, 15) Portland 3, and 16) Hawaii 0.50.
 
UCLA leads the men's team standings after six events with 32 points followed by: 1) UCLA 32, 2) Arizona State 28, 3) Long Beach St. 27, 4) Washington 25.50, 5) USC 21, 6) BYU 20, 7) Oregon 18, 8) Colorado 17, 9) Washington St. 11, 10) California 10, 11) Stanford 9.50, 12) Arizona 8, 13) Portland 6, and 14) UC Riverside 1.
 
The MPSF Indoor Track & Field Championships continue Saturday at 10:30 a.m.