WSU's Jeshua Anderson three-peats as Pac 10 champ, while UW's Katie Follett falls just short...

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Washington State junior Jeshua Anderson (left/photo by Paul Merca) won his third consecutive conference intermediate hurdles title Sunday afternoon during the final day of the Pacific-10 Conference Track & Field Championships at Edwards Stadium/Goldman Field in Berkeley.

Anderson won the men's 400m hurdles in a season-best, national collegiate-leading and Pac-10 championship meet record time of 48.63 seconds. His time Sunday was just 16/100s of a second off his school-record time of 48.47 run last season, and is currently the eighth fastest time in the world this season. WSU's J Hopkins finished seventh in the same intermediate hurdles final in a time of 52.71.

Anderson, the two-time defending NCAA champion, became the third man to win three Pac-10 400m hurdles titles (since 1976), and only the second to win three consecutive times. UCLA's Kevin Young won the intermediate hurdles in 1986, '87 and '88, while UCLA's Brandon Johnson won the titles in 2004, '05 and 2007. Earlier in the afternoon, Anderson finished third in the 110m high hurdles with a time of 14.07.

After the 400m hurdles final, Anderson said, "It (winning) feels good. It's a blessing. I'm happy to be in a race where you've got great competitors. (Comparing this performance to last year's) This one I wanted it more. My goal time was, you know, anything 48, so I thought I'd try to break the barrier, but just stay relaxed, win the race. And everything came out smoothly. I was focused on my hurdles. My mom told me to have that tunnel vision and focus on my hurdles."

Asked about breaking the Pac-10 meet record, Anderson said, "I'm ecstatic. I thank God for everything. I'm a little tired from yesterday but this is a blessing. My goal time was to break the Pac-10 meet record and I was able to do that today."

Senior Trent Arrivey could not successfully defend his 2009 high jump title, settling for second after clearing a outdoor season-best of 7-feet, 1 1/2 inches (2.17m) on his first attempt. USC's Majula Kumara Wijesekar won the high jump with a leap of 7-2 1/2 (2.20m).

Entering 7-2 1/2, Arrivey seemingly had control of the field, thanks to a first attempt clearance at the previous height, but swirling winds made conditions a bit tricky for the four remaining competitors. Kumara Wijesekar, who left the high jump competition briefly in order to get an attempt in the triple jump, salted the victory with his winning jump at 7-2 1/2, before taking two fair attempts at 7-4 1/2.

Washington's Katie Follett could not overcome the gap established by Oregon's Zoe Buckman over the last 200, and fell 5/100ths of a second short of getting the three-peat in the 1500 meter run, as Buckman survived a late charge over the last 50 meters to win the conference title, 4:15.95 to 4:16.00.

Freshman James Alaka earned a pair of third-place finishes in the 100- and 200-meter dashes for the Huskies. The London native also helped carry the stick around in the 4x100m relay, which placed sixth, giving Alaka a hand in 15 points for the men, as they equaled their best finish in the Pac-10 meet since 2006, placing sixth with 68 points.

WSU freshman Stephan Scott-Ellis was the runner-up in the men's triple jump with a leap of 50-10 1/4 (15.50m), accomplished on his third attempt on the day.

WSU's men's 4x100m relay finished third as the team of Brett Blanshan, Nate Washington, Greg Hornsby and Marlon Murray ran a time of 40.29 seconds. Unfortunately Murray was not able to run in the 100m finals a short time later, so the Cougar men missed valuable points from him after he had finished fifth in the prelims.

Joe Abbott finished third in the men's 800m run with a PR time of 1:48.75 for the Cougs, dropping his previous PR time by 22/100s of a second.

The Washington women's squad finished a disappointing ninth with 47.5 points, ahead of only Oregon State, which did not score at all.

Washington State's men's squad finished seventh with 67 points, while the women earned 52 points, good for eighth place.

Oregon, led by multi-event specialists and world championships competitors Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen, rolled over the competition, winning the women's team title with 215 points over second place Arizona's 109, while the men won the conference title by 12.5 points, 168.5 to 156 over runner-up USC.

Washington's release of the Pac 10 Championships can be accessed here, while WSU's recap is available here.

Complete results from the Pac-10 Championships can be accessed here.

DIVISION I ROUNDUP

Eastern Washington University won a trio of titles -- including a school record in the 4x100-meter relay -- as the Eagle women finished a best-ever fourth at the 2010 Big Sky Conference Track and Field Championships in Ogden, Utah.

Brianna Okoro won the women’s 200-meter title and Brad Wall triumphed in the men’s 400 meters with a school record time as 11 more Eagles earned All-Big Sky honors by finishing in the top three in their respective events. Including six on Friday, that brought the total to 17 the number of top-three marks the Eagles had at the meet.

The 4x100 relay team, consisting of Sarah Frey, Okoro, Shene Davis and Whitney Leavitt, finished with a time of 45.31 to edge Portland State (45.99).

On the meet's first day, Luckenbach defended her title with a throw of 190-5, well short of her school record of 199-8 set earlier this season.

The Eagle women scored 102 points, eclipsing its previous high of 79 points set in 1999 when EWU finished sixth. That was EWU’s previous best finish, which has occurred on seven occasions. Sacramento State won the women’s team title with 145 points. Runner-up was Northern Arizona (109) followed by third-place Montana (103).

The Eastern men placed fourth with 93 points, trailing winner Weber State (176.5), runner-up Northern Arizona (171) and third-place Sacramento State (130).

Eastern's release as well as a link to results from the Big Sky Conference championships can be accessed here.

SEATTLE UNIVERSITY FINISHES FOURTH AND SIXTH IN THE GREAT WEST CONFERENCE

In Yankton, South Dakota, Seattle University senior Daniel Sullivan won the 400 meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 53.40 seconds, over a full second ahead of his nearest competitor.
Sophomore Tom Mezzera won the 400 meter dash by just 18/100ths of a second with a school record time of 47.52 seconds.

With both teams picked to finish sixth in the preseason coaches' poll, the Seattle U men's squad exceeded expectations with 67 points for fourth place, while the women's team proved the predictions true with 28 points for sixth place. Preseason favorite Utah Valley easily won both titles, compiling 261.5 points on the men's side and 301 points on the women's side.

Seattle University's release can be accessed here, as well as a link to results from the Great West Conference meet.

NOTE: The University of Washington and Washington State University's sports information offices contributed to this report.

Comments