By
Francisco Merced
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Coach happy with team's performance
With two weeks left until the NCAA Indoor Championships, the UA women's track and field team got an early jump on filling the trophy case.
The Wildcat women brought home the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship title from this past weekend's MPSF meet in Flagstaff.
The meet, held at Northern Arizona's Walkup Skydome, finished with the UA men in second place, 3.5 points behind eventual champion Washington State.
"A few different finishes here and there and both teams would have come out champions," UA head coach Dave Murray said, reflecting on the possibility of what could have been. "We had some strong performances today, especially with the women."
Leading the way for the women was the team's individual point leader, junior Brianna Glenn.
Glenn successfully defended her titles in the 60- and 200-meter dashes, easily outdistancing the rest of the field in both races.
Glenn finished the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.38 seconds - 0.31 seconds ahead of the field. The junior also tallied a time of 23.76 seconds in the 200-meter dash, 0.48 seconds in front of second place.
Glenn said her effort was overshadowed by a consistent showing by her teammates.
"It was a good effort by everybody," Glenn said. "We had strong performances and came out and beat some very good teams. We came in second last year, and it was a close meet, but to win it this year was really rewarding."
Senior pole vaulter Andrea Dutoit agreed.
"This year we had a lot of people perform very well," Dutoit said. "We really wanted to win a team trophy, and that made a difference."
While the senior did not finish with an official mark, she was able to see freshman Amy Linnen clear 13 feet, 2.5 inches and take second place in the vaulting event.
Highlighting the men's strong weekend was the performance of the 4x400-meter relay team, which now boasts a new school record.
The team - juniors Matt Lea, Jules Doumbya and Mike Kenyon along with senior Patrick Nduwimana - smashed the 11-year-old school record by 2.49 seconds. The new mark stands at three minutes, 7.02 seconds.
The time, however, was bittersweet for the Wildcats - despite setting the school record, the Wildcats lost the race to in-state rival ASU.
Despite the roller coaster of emotions, Murray said he was happy with both teams' performances in the meet.
"Overall, we had a really good weekend," Murray said. "The only slight disappointment being that the men just lost by only three-and-a-half points."
