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MPSF Indoor Championships 2014

MPSF Conference Bubble Watch

MPSF Conference Bubble Watch

Feb 28, 2014 by Isaac Wood
MPSF Conference Bubble Watch
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Conference meet this weekend is more than just the Pac-12 Indoor Conference meet. Yes, the meet is loaded with studs from the Pac-12, but the addition of quality distance runners from BYU like Jared Ward and even Long Beach State's Chris Enriquez make the distance races at this meet top-notch. 

Be sure to watch the races live here.

Instead of doing the typical "five races to watch for," I'm going to simply breakdown the races that actually have meaning to the NCAA outlook in two weeks. 

To start is the Women's 800m, which starts Saturday at 1:05 PM. Oregon's Samantha Murphy is currently ranked 22nd in the NCAA in the 800m. The former Illinois stud is in an quality race this weekend in Seattle, WA and could be pulled to a sub-2:05.87 time that is needed to crack the top 16. 

Currently, Shelby Houlihan of Arizona State is ranked 13th in the NCAA in the mile. Her race at MPSF this weekend could be important for her to drop her time down just a tad to solidify her spot at NCAAs. Houlihan's mile race goes off Saturday at 11:00 AM.

Granted, there most likely won't be loads of quality miles run this weekend. That's relative to actual fast times, since there will obviously be quality tactical races this weekend as it is conference weekend and that's usually how things work. But you can be sure that Houlihan is not one to mess around with slow paces anyway.  A sub-4:37 mile mark would put her just outside of top-10 and would definitely be enough to ensure her spot in Albuquerque. 



The Women's 5000m goes off Friday night at 6:00 PM and has three ladies who have seed times that are close enough to getting into NCAAs, but might go for it at MPSF and ruin someone else's dreams of Nationals by not running hard at their conference meet. Kelsey Santisteban of California is certain capable of the sub-16:00 minute mark that is needed to make it to NCAAs. Abbey Levene of Colorado is currently 18th and is slated to run the 5k, so we should see her get after a bit as well.

Also, don't be surprised to see Molly Grabill of Oregon go hard as well to avoid any chance of getting bumped out of her 15th spot. 

On the men's side, the two big names in this meet are obviously the two best distance runners in the NCAA: Lawi Lalang of Arizona and Ed Cheserek of Oregon. We'll get to them in a second. 

First I'd like to give a quick shout out to Nick Hartle, who at the Husky Classic, was right on pace to go sub-4 in his mile race before he had a very unfortunate fall on the final turn. He was really getting things going at that point in the race and was certainly going to break four minutes. Hartle is currently ranked 20th in the 800m and is slated to run that at MPSF this weekend The race is Saturday at 1:15 PM.

After looking so good a few weeks ago before his fall, Hartle should be able to run the sub-1:48.86 that will be need to go to NCAAs. You can watch Hartle's epic fall here (@ 4:05): 


 
Lalang is running the 5k (Friday night at 6:20) and if he runs it the way he ran the 3k at the UW Invite a month ago, he should run something sub-13:40ish. That will leave him in an interesting position to possibly triple at NCAAs.

Hypothetical: We could see this happening. If Lalang triples and wins all three and Nick Ross, Arizona's high jumper, wins the high jump, they will be at 40 points and definitely in contention to at least podium. 

Cheserek will be running his first collegiate 3k this weekend because why not? The 3k (Saturday at 1:50) is the last event, distance wise, at NCAAs and you might as well empty the tank while in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Cheserek, with former high school foe Ben Saarel of Colorado in the race, will be looking for some Dream Mile vengeance from last year as Saarel blew by the field in New York. Don't be surprised to see Cheserek run sub 7:50.

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