Taiwo, Covington, Roth & Babcock highlight Purple/Gold intrasquad meet...

SEATTLE--Just when you thought you'd seen everything at a track meet, you quickly find out that you haven't.

To conclude the fall training session, the University of Washington held its second annual Purple/Gold intrasquad meet Thursday night at the Dempsey Indoor facility.

The scaled-down track meet was an opportunity for members of the team to gauge their fitness after going through an entire fall of training.

Jeremy Taiwo had solid performances, winning the 60 hurdles in 8.03, finishing second in the long jump at 20-11.5 (6.38m) and second in the high jump at 6-8 (2.03m), as well as anchoring the winning Gold team in the All x 307m relay.

In his debut performance as a Husky, freshman Kasen Covington, the Track & Field News All-American from Boise took home two victories for the Purple squad, winning the long jump on his final attempt from a five-step approach at 21-10 (6.65m), and winning the triple jump at 48-4 1/2 (14.74m).

Scott Roth, the 2010 NCAA indoor pole vault champ won an exciting pole competition over Ryan Vu, the reigning Pac-10 pole vault champ, clearing 17-4 1/2 (5.30m) to Vu's 16-10 3/4 (5.15m).

NCAA All-American and reigning Canadian national champ Kyle Nielsen won the turbo javelin competition over World Junior championships competitor Joe Zimmerman 178-2 (54.30m) to 171-7 (52.30m).

Colton Dunn (above/photo by Paul Merca) won the 300 meter dash over NCAA competitor James Alaka, 34.84 to 34.93. Alaka won the rarely contested 88.11m dash (the length of the Dempsey Indoor straightaway), running 9.55 to beat Dunn, who ran 9.72.

On the women's side, high jumper Kelly McNamee appears to be on the rebound, winning her event at 5-5 3/4 (1.67m). Other noteworthy performances included a victory by Eastern Washington University transfer Amanda Peterson in the turbo javelin for the Purple team in 121-6 (37.04m), Logan Miller in the pole vault for the Gold team (12-0.5/3.67m), freshman Michelle Fero in the 300 (40.69) for the Purple; Elisa Bryant in the women's weight throw (58-10.75/17.95m), and Laura Schmitt in the 600m run (1:35.93).

One of the most entertaining events of the intrasquad meet was the first "Distance Runners Grudge Match" between All-American middle distance runners Christine Babcock of the Gold team and Kailey Campbell of the Purple team.

Babcock won the match 3-2 for the Gold squad (yes, this was a scoring event!) as the two donned sumo wrestling suits and dueled it out on the Dempsey FieldTurf surface with athletes from both teams rooting lustily for their wrestler.

Here are video highlights of the meet, including the All x 307m relay, won by the Gold in 19:18 to 19:34, and the Distance Runners Grudge Match.



The Huskies prepare for fall quarter finals, then go home for the holidays. Washington opens up its indoor season on January 15th with the Husky Preview meet.