The No. 11 Arizona women’s track and field team took third place at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Seattle, Wash., this weekend.
The Wildcats earned 92 points in their third place finish. Oregon won with a total of 112 points. ASU earned second place with 96 points, also earning a Territorial Cup point over Arizona.
The No. 14 men’s team earned a ninth place finish with 36 points. ASU won with 125.50 points.
The Wildcats took victories in three events this weekend.
Senior Julie Labonté won the shotput competition with a season-best mark of 57-feet-4.75-inches. Although Labonté said in a press release that she didn’t quite reach her goal, she was still proud of her performance.
“The last throw I threw 17.49 meters which was a season-best mark and I was really happy about that,” Labonté said in a press release. “I was looking to throw 17.50 meters, so it was a little under what I was hoping for, but I’m going for 18 meters next time. Going into NCAA Championships, hopefully I will throw really far over there.”
The Wildcats were well represented in the shotput competition. Junior Alyssa Hasslen finished second with a mark of 56-feet, 4.5-inches and sophomore Baillie Gibson finished in fifth, with a mark of 53-feet, 11.75-inches.
“I was really excited about how our throwers came back and performed in the shot put final,” Arizona head coach Fred Harvey said in a press release. “They came through and that is what championships are all about.”
Senior Brigetta Barrett won her third consecutive MPSF title in the women’s high jump, with a clearance of 6-feet, 2-inches. Currently, Barrett holds the second-best mark in the country in the high jump.
In the men’s high jump, senior Edgar Rivera-Morales also won his third MPSF title with a clearance of 7-feet, 3-inches.
Other impressive finishes this weekend for the women included junior Shapri Romero’s second place overall in the women’s 400-meter run with a time of 53.56, a personal-best. This amounted for eight points added to the total.
Sophomore Nicci Corbin also added eight points to the total with her finish in the women’s mile. Her time of 4:44.93 was good for second place.
For the men’s squad, junior Sean Delfani finished third with a time of 47.63 in the 400-meter run, the second-fastest time of his career.
“I think the one thing that we learned a lot about in this competition is that we’ve been pretty good these last few years,” Harvey said in a press release. “We have a very highly ranked program. However, what we’re finding out with the young people is that you have to come to compete every single day. That’s a big message we’re taking away from this competition. We could’ve done better. It’s a learning experience, and we’ll get better at that.”
