Jeremy Taiwo misses personal best in decathlon...

AZUSA, California--Sophomore All-American Jeremy Taiwo (left/photo courtesy University of Washington) was just ten points off his personal-best in his first decathlon since last year's Pac-10 Championships, and freshman Sarah Schireman completed the ninth-best heptathlon in school history, as the multi-eventers kicked off competition at the Mt. SAC Relays/California Invitational Multi-Events meet Wednesday & Thursday on the campus of Azusa Pacific.

Taiwo (Renton, Wash.) who was third at Pac-10s placed sixth with 7,289 points, finished 10 points short of his career-best of 7,299 which ranks sixth in school history.

His mark could qualify him for NCAAs, as the multis are the only events to qualify athletes straight to the finals based on their season-bests.

Taiwo stood out in the running events, as he was second in both the 400-meters and the 1,500-meters to close both days. His 400m time of 50.02 was a new PR as was his time in the 110m hurdles (14.51) where he placed third overall. Taiwo also had a big PR in the pole vault of 15-1 which tied for third.

Junior Andrew Ferleman (Bellevue, Wash.) and redshirt freshman Jake Vetter (Montesano, Wash.) also put a cap on their first decathlons of the year. Ferleman scored 6,032 points, with his highest-scoring event being the 110m hurdles in which he ran 15.57. Vetter's first decathlon ended with 5,696 points and he tied for a win in the high jump with a clearance of 6-4.

Western Washington University's Alex Harrison (Jr., Edmonds/Edmonds-Woodway) reached the NCAA Division II provisional national qualifying standard in the decathlon as he placed second among 18 competitors in his division with the second-best point total in school history at the California Invitational Multi-Events section.

Harrison's 10-event point total was 6,625, just 65 points behind first-place Mike Powers from UC Santa Barbara, 325 better than the provisional standard, and just 118 off the school record of 6,743 set by Jeff Neubauer in 1986.

Harrison began the final day running the 110-meter hurdles in 16.18 seconds (713). He tossed the discus 127-1 (639), cleared 13-9 1/4 (673) in the pole vault, threw the javelin 191-4 (712) and ran the 1,500 in 4:57.06 (577).

On Wednesday, Harrison ran the 100 in 11.55 (742), leaped 20-8 (652) in the high jump, posted a mark of 43-9 3/4 (689) in the shot put, cleared 5-6 1/2 (536) in the high jump and had a 52.76 (692) clocking in the 400.

Harrison's previous best decathlon was 6,085 points last year at the WWU Multi-Events meet.

Schireman, out of Archbishop Murphy in Everett, was 12th out of 34 competitors in the California Invite heptathlon with 4,458 points. That ranks her sixth in the Pac-10 so far this season, and places her in the UW top-10 list. Schireman's best event was her first, where she ran 15.16 seconds in the 100m hurdles to score 821 points.

Also finishing their first career heptathlons was freshman Shaniae Lakes (Richland, Wash.) who was 16th with 4,292 points, and senior Lindsey Kirschman (Redding, Calif.) who took 20th with 4,228. Lakes was fifth in the long jump with a mark of 17-11 ¾ and seventh in the 200-meters in 26.00 seconds. Kirschman was second out of all competitors in the 800-meters in a time of 2:21.81.

For more information on the Mt. SAC Relays, please visit mtsacrelays.com.

NOTE: The Mt. SAC Relays, the University of Washington, and Western Washington University contributed to this report.