UW's Vu & Western's Brown battle to tie in pole vault at Shannon/Foreman Invite...

Washington senior Ryan Vu (left/photo courtesy University of Washington) cleared a personal best Saturday of 17-7 (5.36m) to tie for first place with Western Washington's Ryan Brown in the best head to head matchup at the Ken Shannon/Ken Foreman Invitational track & field meet at Husky Stadium.

For Vu, this was the second straight year in which he set his outdoor personal best at Husky Stadium.

With NCAA indoor champ Scott Roth from the UW sitting out the meet, it was left to Vu and Brown, the reigning NCAA D2 indoor vault champ to battle it out on the runway.

Vu and Brown each had one miss total at lower heights before clearing 17-7 on their first attempt. The duo took three shots at 17-11 (5.46m) before calling it a day.

Vu's previous personal best was 17-6 1/2, while Brown's was 16-10 3/4 set on April 9th in Bellingham.

The clearance ties the Interlake grade for eighth on the UW all-time top-10 list, and also moves him up to 12th on this year's NCAA descending order list. Meanwhile Brown's jump broke his own school record, as well as his Great Northwest Athletic Conference record.

All-American Kyle Nielsen went 239-6 to win the javelin throw despite taking just four throws. On the women's side, fellow All-American Brooke Pighin got in a good tune-up for the Pac-10 meet with a solid toss of 159-11, about eight feet off her season-best.

In a great battle between a pair of freshmen, Washington's Shaniae Lakes prevailed over Seattle Pacific's Amanda Alvarez in the women's triple jump 39-10 1/2 (12.15m) to 39-8 3/4 (12.11m).

Alvarez’ mark brings her less than two inches from the automatic qualifying standard of 39-10½ for the NCAA Division II championships, which are set for May 27-29 in Charlotte, N.C. Just as important at this point is that while she already was on the NCAA provisional list with her previous best of 38-11 in the season-opening UPS Outdoor Preview on March 6, she now has moved way up that list.

Alvarez now is tied for the eighth-best mark in all of D-2, pending the outcome of other meets around the country this weekend.

SPU assistant coach and former UW All-American Carly Dockendorf won the women’s pole vault, clearing 13-7¼ (4.15m), with the Huskies' Logan Miller and Kelly Mudlo in a three way tie for second at 12-4 (3.76m) with SPU's Melissa Peaslee.

Complete results from the Ken Shannon/Ken Foreman Invitational can be accessed here.
PAC 10 MULTI EVENTS

In Berkeley, California, Washington sophomore Jeremy Taiwo stands in third place at the halfway point of the Pac-10 decathlon, behind Oregon's Ashton Eaton, and Cal's Michael Morrison.

Taiwo, an All-American in the indoor heptathlon as a freshman, was third at this meet last year as well. Through five events, he again is in third with 3,788 points. Oregon's two-time defending NCAA decathlon champion Ashton Eaton is first with 4,220 points and Cal's Michael Morrison is second with 3,858.

Kyle Schauble from Washington State is in eighth place with 3,436 points after the first day of the decathlon. Husky junior Andrew Ferleman is 10th with 3,176 points, while Ramsey Hopkins of WSU dropped out of the competition after the high jump after injuring his hamstring

Taiwo cleared a career-best 6-feet, 8-inches on his third attempt in the high jump before passing the next bar to become the only athlete to score a victory over Eaton, who won the 100, long jump, shot put and 400.

In the women's heptathlon competition, Oregon's Brianne Theisen won all four first day events--the 100 hurdles, the high jump, shot put, and 200 meters--to take a 338 point lead after day 1 with a score of 3600 points.

Angela Jensen from WSU is in sixth place with a lifetime-best first day total of 3,055 points, just two points out of fifth place, and teammate Jasmine Johnson-McKeown is in seventh place with a PR total of 3,022 points.

Washington freshman Sarah Schireman is currently in ninth position with 2,727 points and junior Lindsey Kirschman ranks 10th with 2,536.

Day 1 results from the Pac-10 Multi Event Championships can be accessed here.

OSAKA GRAND PRIX

Former Rainier Beach HS standout Ginnie Powell-Crawford won the 100 meter hurdles at the Osaka Grand Prix meet in Osaka, Japan.

Powell, a two-time world championships finalist, won the race in a time of 12.76 into the wind, 0.12 second ahead of Teteana Dektyareva of Russia, who recorded 12.88. Perdita Felicien from Canada was third with 13.03.

Powell-Crawford, who recently married sprinter Shawn Crawford, opened her outdoor season last week in Kingston, Jamaica by winning in a time of 12.72.

Results and the recap of the Osaka Grand Prix can be accessed here.

NOTE: The University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University, Washington State University, Western Washington University, University of California, and the IAAF all contributed to this report.