MPSF Championships on tap at Dempsey Indoor Friday & Saturday...

Washington track and field once again plays host to the annual Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships this weekend at the Dempsey Indoor. The two-day meet is the indoor conference championship for the West Coast's top track teams and one of the last and best chances to qualify for the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships just two weeks away.

The meet begins Friday, Feb. 27, at 12:30 p.m. and runs until approximately 7 p.m. Events on day one include finals in the men's and women's weight throws, 5,000-meter runs, 200-meter dashes, distance medley relays, long jumps, and the women's pole vault. The majority of the multi-events also will be held Friday.

Action resumes Saturday morning at 11 a.m., with conference champs crowned in the majority of the sprints and distance events, plus high and triple jumps, the shot put, and men's pole vault. The men's and women's 4x400m relays bring the meet to a close at around 3:30 p.m.

The field is made up of Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford, California, Oregon and UCLA out of the Pac-10, plus Long Beach State and Cal State Northridge from the Big West. The Duck men are currently ranked No. 1 in the nation by the USTFCCCA and are the defending conference champions, while the Oregon women are the top-ranked women's team in the field at No. 3. The Arizona State women are ranked eighth and are the defending MPSF as well as NCAA Indoor Champions. Additional ranked men's squads include Arizona State (11th), UCLA (15th), Washington (22nd), and Stanford (25th). The Arizona women are ranked 10th, followed by Washington (21st), and Stanford (25th).

Both Husky teams placed fifth at last year's MPSF meet. The Washington men won the conference title in both 2006 and 2007, while the women have won once before, back in 1995. Last season the Huskies had MPSF wins from Jordan Boase in the 400, and Norris Frederick in the long jump.

To read the full release, please click here, and to go to the meet's home page, you can click here, or click the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation logo above...

Here's the link to the MPSF video coverage by our media partner runnerspace.com.