Scott Roth sets new personal best and MPSF meet record of 5.72m/18-9.25

For a guy who wasn't sure that he was even going to compete today, Washington's Scott Roth (left/photo courtesy University of Washington) made jumping Friday at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation indoor track & field championships worth his while.

The Husky woke up Friday with doubts that he would jump in the MPSF meet due to a sore back.

However, that back did not seem to bother him, as Roth cleared a personal best of 5.72 meters/18-9.25 to take the collegiate lead in the pole vault, and tied the fourth best mark in the world this season in winning the MPSF title.

The mark was one centimeter over the previous championship meet record set by Oregon's Tommy Skipper in 2006.

Roth's path to the MPSF title wasn't without some stress, as UCLA's Johnny Quinn was actually ahead of Roth in the competition before the Husky cleared 5.41m/17-9 to secure the victory.

Courtesy of media partner Flotrack.org, here's the video of Roth's jump.

Washington's Mel Lawrence won the women's 5000 with a strong surge over the last 800 to break away from Stanford's Stephanie Marcy, crossing the line in 16:11.82, nearly seven seconds ahead of Marcy's 16:18.77.

The first seven runners across the line all earned NCAA provisional qualifying marks.

In the men's 5000, Stanford's Elliott Heath broke away from Washington's Colton Tully-Doyle to win the MPSF title in a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 13:47.14, just .14 off the NCAA auto qualifying mark.

Tully-Doyle's runner-up time of 13:48.86 should get the Husky into the NCAA meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas in two weeks.

Washington State's Princess Joy Griffey took second place in the women's 200m dash with a season-best time of 24.34 seconds. In the men's 200, WSU's Marlon Murray was third in a season best 21.63 seconds.

On the field, Kjirsten Jensen threw the 20-pound weight 55-feet, 6 1/4 inches (16.92m) for third place and Cassie Whitfield threw 55-3 3/4 (16.89m) for fifth place for the Cougars.

The meet resumes Saturday with a host of finals.

Results from the MPSF Championships can be accessed here.