Sometimes, track and field can be a sport of centimeters.

Such was the case Saturday afternoon when the UW women track and field team defeated the rival Cougars 81.66-81.33 in the annual UW-WSU dual meet.

“Last year, we took a pretty significant drubbing in Pullman,” said track head coach Greg Metcalf. “For our women to put it back together in one year’s time to come out here and beat the Cougs … by a third of a point was awesome.”

The win over Washington State for the UW women was their first in five years and their second in 12 years, and it did not come easy.

The close competitions in the women’s triple jump and 800-meter run were key in paving the way for the Huskies’ victory.

UW’s Taylor Nichols defeated WSU’s Candace Missouri in triple jump by 2 centimeters, while the Huskies’ Kailey Campbell edged out the Cougars’ Lisa Egami close to the finish line for second place in the 800.

“Kailey Campbell, in my opinion, had the performance for the day,” Metcalf said.

Campbell bested her personal records in the 800 as well as the 1,500 meters.

The women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, however, was not close, as the Huskies’ Mel Lawrence shattered the UW record, the NCAA regional qualifier, as well as her sister’s meet record with a time of 10:07.52.

Lawrence, running in the steeplechase for the first time this year, didn’t know what to expect coming into the meet.

“I’ve been practicing for about two or three weeks now, so I just kind of wanted to go and do it and see what would happen,” Lawrence said.

Women’s distance coach Kelly Strong thought Lawrence did exactly as expected though.

“She knew it, the coaching staff knew it and her whole team knew that she’d go out there and put out that kind of effort, and she made it look easy,” Strong said.

Unfortunately for the Huskies, the UW men were unable to replicate the women’s success, falling to WSU 92-70.

However, the Dawgs were still able to pick up regional qualifiers in several events, including the men’s 4x100-meter relay.

Reach reporter Honsen Lin at sports@dailyuw.com.