University of Washington
MPSF Indoor Championships
Yorks Breaks Mile School Record To Cap MPSFs
March 01, 2015 | Track & Field
Complete Results By Heat | Complete Results Compiled
SEATTLE – For the second meet in a row, and third time in his career, Husky All-American Izaic Yorks broke four minutes in the mile, and number three proved to be the fastest yet, as Yorks broke the Washington school record with a time of 3:57.81. The time came in a victory on the final day of the MPSF Championships, and should guarantee the Lakewood, Wash. native of a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks.
The MPSF meet came to a close and with it ended the home indoor home season for the Huskies inside the Dempsey. Washington has a number of athletes expected to advance to indoor nationals in Fayetteville, Ark. on Mar. 13-14, but a few more will have to wait until this coming Tuesday to find out for sure if they are in the field, which includes only the top-16 athletes nationally in every event.
Yorks came into the weekend as one of those bubble dwellers, after his 3:58.69 mile time from two weeks ago left him ranked 19th coming in. He left little doubt after today, as he pulled away over the last 100-meters to get the win and break Austin Abbott's record time of 3:58.23 set back in 2009. Yorks is also the first Husky to win the men's mile since Abbott in 2007. He's the first Husky as well to run three sub-four-minute miles in the Dempsey.
After making the national meet in the mile last year, Yorks will try to break through into the final for the first time this season.
“I could have went earlier, but I think it would have been a bad move if I did. I needed to keep feeling it out, and I knew that (Oregon's Will Geoghegan) was trying to qualify so if I stuck with him I should be fine,” Yorks said, and added he was confident that he could kick late for the win.
“That was not a surprise for one second. I fully expected him to run 3:57 today,” said Head Coach Greg Metcalf. “He went out and was patient and was calm – he was actually kind of slow – but he closed hard and beat a couple of really good guys, so he's going to the show. Breaks our school record in the process. Izaic's … just worked hard, he brings it every single today, and it was incredibly fun to watch.”
The win from Yorks was the big highlight for the Dawgs on the final day of the conference championships. The Huskies wound up with four titles total, after Kristina Owsinski and Jax Thoirs won the pole vaults on Friday evening and Aaron Nelson won the 5,000-meters. The USC women won the team title with 111 points, with UW finishing sixth with 51 points. The Oregon men were victorious with 95 points while Washington wound up seventh with 54.5.
“We were missing a few too many pieces this weekend,” Metcalf said on the overall team finish. “Overall, the men battled, we were leading day one, and we thought we could maybe score eighty points, but it didn't come together that way. But I think it's a great mid-year evaluation of where our team is. The women had lots of positives, but also there are things we need to figure out across the board. It was a good weekend for both of our groups, and the group that's going to the NCAA Championships is a strong group and hopefully they'll go and put some points on the board.”
Three Husky sprinters had finals to attend to early in the afternoon. In the women's hurdles final, junior Kimberly Stueckle matched her PR set just yesterday in the prelims, as she ran 8.42 seconds to take fifth overall. Junior Chris Williams had the top qualifying time in the men's 60m hurdles, but clipped too many barriers today and had to settle for fourth in 8.02 seconds. In the men's 60m dash final, junior Quadelle Satterwhite had an off race, taking eighth overall in 6.94.
Junior Baylee Mires added some points in the women's 800-meters, which was one of the highest caliber races of the day. Mires, on track to earn a spot at NCAAs in the 800m, had to settle for fifth-place despite running the second-best time of her career indoors, finishing in 2:06.31. In the men's 800-meters, Nick Harris posted a PR indoors or out, clocking 1:50.06 to take eighth, and also move to eighth on the UW top-10 list.
Prior to Yorks' mile run, junior Joelle Amaral scored at a championship meet for the first time in her career, as she ran a PR of 4:43.19 to take fifth. Senior Eleanor Fulton also was eight in 4:43.74, coming back from anchoring the DMR last night.
The men's heptathlon wrapped up today, with senior Nick Pfeiffer capping off a career-best weekend. Pfeiffer tied for the best pole vault clearance with a 15-9 make, a new PR, and he also ran a 60m hurdles PR of 8.79, then finished the 1000m in 2:48.23 to end up with 5,281 points overall. That put him sixth to earn three team points, and was a PR by over a hundred points. Pfeiffer is third on the Husky heptathlon top-10.
Also scoring points today was Frank Catelli in the men's shot put, who had a best of 59-6 ¼ to place seventh. The women's 4x400m relay of Krista Armstead, Sierra Peterson, Carolyn Birkenfeld, and Gianna Woodruff also was seventh in 3:45.13.
Armstead led several more Dawgs with big personal-bests, as she ran 55.83 seconds today in the 400-meters, moving to No. 7 on the top-10 list. In the women's 3,000-meters, Jenna Sanders ran a 20-second PR, clocking 9:35.32, and Kelly Lawson was right behind in a career-best 9:37.74. In the women's high jump, Elizabeth Quick showed she still has solid hops without the assistance of a pole, as she was able to make 5-5 ¼ in her first high jump of the year.
Andrew Prentice lowered his 800m PR to 1:51.16, and Keith Williams clocked a personal-best mile time of 4:06.93, with Johnathan Stevens also running a PR of 4:08.35. Sophomore Dan Boyden had a huge career-best in the shot put, throwing 54-10 on his first attempt, more than two and a half feet better than his old standard.
Players Mentioned
