UC Riverside
MPSF Indoor Championship
Amarasekara & Women’s Distance Medley Relay Lead the Highlanders at MPSF Championships
2/25/2018 9:44:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
Seattle, WA – Sophomore Dilini Amarasekara finished in 7th place in the women's pentathlon at the MPSF Championships hosted by the University of Washington this weekend, scoring 3585 points in the 5-event competition on Friday night. It was the second best event total in her career.
Amarasekara's high jump of 1.65m (5'5") – which ranks 3rd all-time at UCR – and her 5.49m (18'00.25") long jump were her strongest events in the pentathlon. The pentathlon also included the shot put, 60m hurdles and concluded with an 800m dash.
Senior Camille Deadwiler was able to secure a new program record in the women's 60m dash with a time of 7.66 seconds. She finished 3rd in the 7th section of her event.
The women's distance medley relay muscled out an 8th place finish among 14 premiere DMR relays. The relay, comprised of Emily Sanchez, Taylor Brown, Cydney Branch and Faith Makau, ran a time of 11:35.33, which ranks as the second best time in UCR Indoor Track history.
On Saturday afternoon, Makau doubled back and won the third section of the women's 800m dash in dominating fashion. Her time of 2:12.33 ranks as the second fastest time in school history. This is the 3rd event this season that Makau has secured a 2nd-best all-time mark. Makau was followed closely by Cydney Branch who made her Highlander debut in an individual event. Branch finished 3rd in the 1st section of the 800m run with an 8th best all-time UCR indoor mark of 2:14.90.
Freshman Hana Johnson made her Highlander debut in the women's triple jump. She leapt her way into the 3rd best indoor mark of all-time at UCR with a bound of 11.71 meters or 38 feet 5 inches. Junior Tayler Fleming returned to form, securing a top-10 finish in the women's long jump with an indoor lifetime best of 5.67 meters or 18 feet 7.25 inches. This mark ranks 4th all-time at UCR.
In the women's 3000m, Weslie Pearce and Sanchez finished 7th & 10th respectively in the second section of the women's 3000m run. Their marks of 9:44.21 & 9:48.07 are 7th and 8th best in UC Riverside indoor history.
On the men's side, Michael Kojin crossed the finish line in 21.87 seconds to secure an 8th place finish. Kojin was the lone point scorer on the men's side. Ethan Van Setten and Heinrich Van Niekerk made their indoor debuts at 800m and clocked 1:55.13 & 1:55.63 which are 7th and 8th, respectively, all-time indoors. Quinn Williams also moved up the UCR all-time list, to spot number 3 with his 8.45 finish in the 60m hurdles.
"In our 2nd trip to the MPSF – we were able to score in some events we hadn't before (W DMR, Pentathlon & M 200). The distance athletes shined in terms of overall performance as a group, kudos to Coach Hansen and those athletes," Head Coach Nate Browne said.
"We also had some very solid debuts from people that hadn't competed in indoor yet this season. We still missed some in terms of execution on meet day, that has to improve if we want to climb the ladder in the MPSF conference. We will continue to work on that as we move into our outdoor season next week at RCC."
For full results of the MPSF Championshps, please click here.
