By
Honsen Lin
March 3, 2008
Norris Frederick jumped into the record books on Friday in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships (MPSF) long jump competition. His distance of 8.12 meters (26.64 feet) set the MPSF record as well as a Dempsey Indoor record and was good enough for an automatic bid for the NCAA Championships for indoor track.
Photo by Whitney Little.
Sophomore Katie Follett crosses the finish line for the women’s 3,000-meter run, placing second and setting a UW indoor record.
Upon hearing his results, Frederick did a celebratory back flip in front of the spectators.
Track coach Greg Metcalf, who congratulated Frederick with a low five shortly after his record-setting jump, was also ecstatic about the results.
“He smashed our school record. It’s a new huge PR (personal record) for him,” Metcalf said. “He’s the second best jumper in the U.S. right this second, that’s outstanding.”
Frederick added an NCAA provisional bid in the high jump on Saturday, with a height of 2.21 meters (7.25 feet), wrapping up a remarkable MPSF weekend for him.
Overall, the entire Husky track team had a pretty good meet. The Dawgs scored 10 other NCAA provisional qualifiers besides Frederick’s two.
“From 200 meters on up, these events were just absolutely fully loaded,” assistant coach Jimmy Bean said.
Katie Follett, who already has an NCAA automatic qualification for the mile, received an NCAA provisional qualifier in the 3000-meter run, with a time of 9:25.09.
Andrea Brown, who ran a 4:47.70 in the mile, will nab an NCAA provisional bid as well, joining Follett and Amanda Miller in the Husky women milers who may compete in the NCAA Championships.
In the 800-meter run, Michelle Turner ran a 2:08.97, good enough for an NCAA provisional bid.
The women’s distance medley relay team, with Miller, Falesha Ankton, Turner and Follett, ran neck-and-neck with Stanford until the final laps.
Their time of 11:12.77 qualified for an NCAA provisional spot. “It just missed [the NCAA Automatic],” Metcalf said. “[But] it’s the number seven time in America. It’s pretty good.”
Ankton added a provisional qualifier of her own in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.43 seconds.
Wrapping up the UW women’s provisional qualifiers are Kelley Divesta in the pole vault with a height of 3.99 meters (13.09 feet) and Liz Fuller in the pentathlon, with a score of 3840.
On the men’s side, sprinter Jordan Boase had a great MPSF meet, grabbing NCAA provisional bids in the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter dash. He ran a 21.08 and a 46.37, respectively.
“[The 21.08 in the 200] was a PR for Jordan,” Metcalf said. “It’s a great run for him.”
Pole vaulter Scott Roth, with the support of the entire Husky track team, vaulted his way to an NCAA provisional bid with a height of 5.39 meters (17.68 feet). Roth, who is recovering from a back injury, had a chance to win the MPSF pole vault competition, but elected to rest after he claimed the provisional qualifier.
“He came here this week with just the intention of qualifying for the NCAA Championships,” coach Bean said. “Two weeks from now, he’ll be way better than he is today.”
The Huskies’ next meet is the UW Last Chance Meet next weekend, presenting the last chance for remaining Huskies to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
[Reach reporter Honsen Lin at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.]
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