WSU Men Take Home Four Titles From Pepsi Invitational

College track

Washington State University’s men’s track team won three individual titles and a relay event during Saturday’s highly competitive Oregon Pepsi Team Invitational.

The Cougar women won once during the four-team competitions.

The men’s portion produced two meet records, including Oregon’s Pat Johnson, who ran a 45.57 in the 400 meters.

Kevin Sullivan of Michigan timed 3:39.15 in the 1,500.

Johnson, a wide receiver on Oregon’s Pac-10 champion football team, also won the 200 in 20.85 seconds. It was just .39 off his season best, which is also the second-fastest time by an American this year.

Sullivan, the NCAA indoor champion, turned in the fastest time in the U.S. this season with his 1,500 victory.

There were four NCAA automatic qualifying times, nine NCAA provisional qualifying marks and 23 Pac-10 marks.

The Cougar men placed third overall with 141 points behind the host Ducks’ 204 and Nebraska’s 200.

For the Cougar men, senior Jason Baskett qualified for the conference meet with a 169-4 discus toss. He was also second in the shot put at 53-11 1/4 and placed fourth in the hammer with a throw of 187-8.

Pole vaulter Christos Pallakis, who already has WSU and Greek indoor records at 18-6 1/2, had a season outdoor-best 17-4 1/2, an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.

Eric Anderson timed 1:49.80 to win the 800, in which he has already qualified for the Pac-10 meet. He also was a member of the victorious 1,600 relay team, which timed 3:13.11 and included teammates Leo Slack, Jim Carkner and James Swanson.

Other Cougar Pac-10 meet qualifiers were Henri Peyou in the 400 at 47.82 and Chris Mosley in the high jump with a leap of 6-10 3/4.

In addition, James Swanson knocked .35 of his best 400 hurdles time.

The women were fourth with 103.5 points, behind national powerhouse Nebraska - which won the four-way meet - Oregon and Michigan.

WSU did score a dual-meet victory over Michigan.

Freshman hurdler Nicky Booth won the 100-meter hurdles in a wind-aided 14.13. Teammate Tori Hall, a junior, was third in 14.36.

Sophomore Annemarie Hobbs lowered her Pacific-10 1,500 qualifying time by nearly 5 seconds to 4:34.29.

In the field events, sophomore Ginger Tivey placed third in the javelin with a throw of 144-9.

Defending NCAA champion Nicola Martial of Nebraska won the triple jump in a meet record 43 feet, 3 1/4 inches, edging Oregon’s Sara Jessie, who set a school record at 42-6.

Oregon’s Camera Jones won the 400 in 52.86 and anchored both winning relay teams.

Next weekend a small Cougar squad will participate in the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. The rest of the team will be at the Pelluer Invitational in Cheney on Friday.