UW track has good showing at regional

Washington's track and field teams added five more NCAA championships qualifiers yesterday to cap the first NCAA West Regional championships at Stanford's Cobb Track and Angell Field.

UCLA swept the men's and women's titles, scoring 138 points in the women's competition and 101 in the men's event. The Washington women had 26 points to place 11th, and the Huskies men, missing injured star pole vaulter Brad Walker, tied Washington State for 12th place with 17 points.

"We weren't as concerned with the team scoring this weekend," said UW coach Greg Metcalf. "The goal at this meet is to qualify for nationals. ... I'm proud to say that our kids stepped up, and as a result we'll be sending twice as many kids to the NCAA meet as we did a year ago."

The top five finishers in each individual event earned automatic berths into the NCAA Championships, June 11-14 in Sacramento, Calif.

Junior Brittiny Roberts led the Huskies' qualifiers with a third-place finish in the triple jump in a wind-aided 41 feet, 4¼ inches. Roberts' mark was just a quarter-inch shy of her career best.

The Huskies had three qualifiers in the 1,500.

Juniors Eric Garner and John Russell entered the meet ranked seventh and eighth, respectively, in the men's event, but Garner finished fourth in 3:47.12 and Russell was fifth in 3:47.34.

Senior Courtney Inman earned her second straight trip to the NCAA championships with a third-place finish in the women's 1,500. The third-place finisher in the event at the Pac-10 championships, Inman finished in 4:22.11.

The other UW qualifier was Todd Arnold, who was fourth in the men's 800 meters with a three-spot improvement over his placing in the event at the Pac-10 championships two weeks ago.

The news was not all good for the Huskies, however. NCAA officials informed them that the results from Friday night's discus had been mis-scored on the field. The result of the error moved Huskies senior Mat Schwinn from fifth to sixth place, and out of a trip to the NCAA meet.

Schwinn can still make the NCAA championships field as one of six to eight provisional qualifiers per event, all of whom will be announced on Wednesday.

• The Washington State women finished sixth with 43 points. The Cougars were led by Whitney Evans' win in the high jump (5-10½) and a second-place finish by the 1,600-meter relay team in a school-record time of 3:33.65. Bennie Chatman led the WSU men, finishing third in the 100 with a time of 10.40.

Pac-10 football

The Pac-10 council voted to approve changing the tiebreaker rules for determining which team goes to the Rose Bowl.

On Thursday, league athletic directors approved a system that would scrap nonleague games as a component. League presidents still need to approve the change, and their vote is expected today.

The Rose Bowl tiebreaking formula currently calls for head-to-head play as the first determinant, followed by a points system that counts four for a conference win and three for a nonconference victory against Division 1-A teams.

The proposal would do away with the points system and introduce a three-tiered tiebreaker, including: First, head-to-head play; second, a comparison of how the tied teams did against the rest of the league, top to bottom; and third, if the teams are still tied, a comparison of their final Bowl Championship Series rankings.

Notes

• Western Washington's varsity-eight and varsity-four crews will compete in the grand finals today at the NCAA Division II Women's Rowing National Championships at Eagle Creek Reservoir in Indianapolis.

The Vikings' four gained the third and final grand-final berth with a win over Florida Tech. WWU's varsity eight qualified for the grand final on Friday.

• Former UW rower Anna Mickelson helped the United States win gold in the women's eight at the World Cup stop in Milan, Italy. Erik Miller of Renton helped the U.S. win bronze in men's lightweight four without coxswain. Sarah Jones of Stanwood was sixth in the final of women's double sculls.