On a lonely Friday afternoon when most of the Husky track team “rested their starters” in the Ken Shannon Invitational, All-American pole vaulter Jared O’Connor topped the best height of his life to win the event.

“Jared O’Connor is a superstar performance of the day easy [at] 17-6,” track head coach Greg Metcalf said. “He’s headed in the right direction at the right time, and in our sport, timing is everything. Jared is poised to do great things.”

O’Connor, meanwhile, deferred to his teammates’ successes.

“[With] the momentum we picked up from the last meet and this meet, I feel like we’re in good position to do very well at Pac-10s, regionals and nationals,” O’Connor said. “This meet establishes the fact that we’re starting to peak.”

With vaults and jumps coach Pat Licari coaching the UW’s multi-events athletes at the Pac-10 Multi-Events meet, O’Connor, a fifth-year senior, picked up the coaching duties.

“When you get to a certain point, you get to know the vault,” O’Connor said. “Anytime you can help out somebody else … it’s definitely an opportunity [to] better the team, better their marks.”

Although the vast majority of the Dawgs’ All-American runners rested this week to prepare for the Pac-10 championships, freshman All-American Kendra Schaaf ran and won the women’s 1,500-meter race.

“For her to come out and make her 2009 debut and run [4:23.55], I thought was a great start,” Metcalf said.

Schaaf, a member of the UW’s women’s cross-country team that won the national championship, is redshirting the track season and ran unattached for Washington in the race.

The Huskies picked up six other wins in the Ken Shannon Invitational.

At the Pac-10 Multi-Events finals in Eugene, Ore., the UW’s Jeremy Taiwo placed third in the decathlon, scoring six points for Washington.

Fellow decathlete Andrew Ferleman finished 10th and didn’t score.

Senior Liz Fuller finished in ninth place in the heptathlon, one position away from being one of the point scorers.

Reach reporter Honsen Lin at sports@dailyuw.com.