May 12, 2013

Results

LOS ANGELES - Kristine Felix, a freshman at Washington State University, became the first Cougar woman to win the conference championships in the pole vault Sunday at the Pac-12 Track & Field Championships on Cromwell Field at Loker Stadium on the USC campus.

Felix, from Wailuku, Hawai'i, cleared the bar at 13-feet 4 1/4 inches (4.07m) on her first attempt for the win. Junior Kelsey Bueno (Kent, Wash.) finished fourth after vaulting a PR height of 13-0 1/4 (3.97m). Felix's mark moved her to third-best in WSU all-time records while Bueno's mark is tied for sixth-best in WSU history. Felix also eclipsed the school freshman record of 13-2 1/4 (4.02m) by Tamara Diles in 2001.

After passing on the first two heights, 11-6 1/2 (3.52m), and 12-0 1/2 (3.67m), Felix cleared the next three bars on her first attempt -12-6 1/4 (3.82m), 13-0 1/4 (3.97m), and 13-4 1/4 - before missing on all three attempts at 13-8 1/4 (4.17m). The event took nearly three hours in temperatures at or above 85 degrees.

"It was a little shaky because the wait was really long because there were 21 vaulters," Felix said. "I definitely stayed confident and relaxed and took a deep breath every time I jumped. I think the biggest thing that helped today was being really cool. I had a towel soaked with really cold water, I had a spray fan and stayed hydrated and I stayed in the shade all day yesterday. I started today at my PR height before college and I was scared to start there but I trusted Coach McGee. I'm definitely more confident in the 13-feet range now."

Jesse Jorgensen (redshirt sophomore, Puyallup, Wash.) was the runner-up in the men's 800m final running a time of 1:50.88.

"I wanted to be in the top three so I'm happy with second for sure," Jorgensen said. "I didn't want to be in the front pack but that was the only option where I settled in but after a lap I didn't want to get boxed so I started moving faster. I didn't like the heat but I didn't think it affected me badly. I usually run decently in the heat. I hope to keep moving on and it would be really cool to make it to nationals but really tough."

Todd Wakefield (junior, Kearns, Australia) was the runner-up in men's 1500m final after running a lifetime best time of 3 minutes 41.83 seconds. Wakefield sprinted the final 100 meters of the race, moving from seventh into second place. He ran a PR time in the1500m prelims of 3:42.93 Saturday.

"The plan today was just to compete; to get my nose in there, hopefully have something in the last 100 meters and that's how it turned out," Wakefield said. "That's strength coming through from cross country season, a few good 3000 races indoors and all the volume and work we've been doing starting to pay off. That is a testament to Tim (Riley). Tim's a great coach and a brilliantly smart man - he's a doctor in neuroscience - and that shows in his coaching. Not just with myself but with Jesse getting second today, Andrew Gonzales has been running well, Jono Lafler with a great 10k last night, Ruby (Roberts) is killing it and Caroline (Austin) and Courtney Zalud didn't have the best day yesterday but coach is getting the most out of his athletes."

In other races where Cougars scored Sunday, Dana Wells (senior, Tieton, Wash.) took fifth place in the men's 400m hurdles in a time of 51.71 seconds. Josiah Sims (senior, Tacoma) took fifth in the men's 110m hurdles in a time of 14.48. The men's 4x100m relay of Greg Hornsby, Trevor Rogers, Brett Blanshan and Andre McBride took sixth place with a time of 40.79. The men's 4x400m relay team of Terrance Chambers, Byron Howell, Lucas Sealby and Jorgensen took eighth place in a time of 3:11.05.

In field finals Sunday, Tay'lor Eubanks (freshman, Everett, Wash.) took fourth place in the men's triple jump after a wind-aided leap of 48-5 1/4 (14.76m). Oliver Henry (senior, Spanaway, Wash.) took seventh place in the men's discus with a toss of 172-8 (52.62m).

Ruby Roberts (junior, Kingston, Wash.) finished eighth in the women's 1500m final with a PR time of 4:20.16, bettering her previous mark which was also fourth-best in WSU all-time records.

The Cougar women's 400m relay of Cindy Robinson, Dominique Keel, Christiana Ekelem and Shawna Fermin scored at seventh place with a time of 46.14. The WSU women lost valuable points when Fermin scratched out of the 400m dash final after injuring her hamstring running the anchor leg of the short relay. She was also scheduled to run the 4x400m relay. The 4x400m relay team of Bree Winfrey, Christiana Ekelem, Dominique Keel and Erin Allen finished eighth with a time of 3:39.95.

"We had some great performances and some great competitive efforts by Cougars yesterday and today and someone like Dominique Keel, who wasn't even in a final but she ran some very good times here for a freshman and was very competitive," Cougar Head Coach Rick Sloan said. "I was excited for the way that we competed and performed at this meet. For the most part we showed up ready and competed hard. The level of competition in the Pac-12 Conference is just so high that even though we're pleased with how we performed to a large extent, it is still not quite to that standard where it's scoring points for the team. There are people like Caroline Austin and both women pole vaulters, especially Kristine Felix, Jesse Jorgensen and Todd Wakefield, who not only performed well but they competed at the highest level and were very successful. That is something to be proud of and an accomplishment for us but when you look at where we finished in relation to the other teams in the conference, we have to do better than that."

The Oregon women's team captured the Pac-12 title with 139 points as the Cougar women took eighth place with 42 points. The Oregon men's team won its seventh consecutive conference track and field title with 149.5 points while the WSU men finished ninth with 45 points.

Cougars competing but not scoring Sunday included Charlotte Muschamp (triple jump - 11.89m/39-0 1/4, 10th), Ashley Kenney (discus - 49.48m/162-4, 9th), Jovan Vukicevic (high jump - 2.06m/6-9, 10th), Ross VanZanten (high jump - 2.01m/6-7, 13th), Andrew Kimpel (5000m - 14:22.10, 10th), and Justin Englund (5000m - 14:47.48, 22nd).

The NCAA West Region Preliminary Round Track & Field Championships will take place May 23-24 in Austin, Texas where the top 48 competitors in each event will compete for one of 12 spots at the NCAA Championships June 5-8 in Eugene.