NW Briefs | Washington women shine in home meet

Four NCAA-leading performances, two U.S.-leading performances and a dramatic upset of the reigning Olympic 400-meter champion were the highlights for Washington men's track team on the final day of the Dempsey Indoor in Seattle.

Four Huskies -- quarter-miler Alex Harcourt, half-miler Ryan Brown, pole vaulter Scott Roth and long jumper Norris Frederick -- shot to No. 1 in the NCAA with their performances, with Harcourt and Frederick's marks ranking as the best by an American male this year.

Harcourt, a junior from Kent, outleaned reigning Olympic 400-meter champion Darrold Williamson for the win in the 400-meter dash. Harcourt's time of 46.43 seconds -- just ahead of gold-medalist Williamson's 46.48 -- established an indoor school record.

Frederick jumped 25 feet, 10 inches, best-ever by a Huskies men's jumper indoors and four inches beyond the Roosevelt High School graduate's previous best.

Brown and Roth claimed No. 1 spots in the NCAA rankings with marks of 1:48.51 in the 800 meters and 18-1 in the pole vault, respectively.

Also, Latasha Essien became Seattle Pacific's newest NCAA Division II championship qualifier and ran her way to No. 2 on the Falcons' all-time indoor 60-meter list (7.75 seconds). SPU has seven automatic and provisional marks through two meets.

Western Washington's Kim Bascom met the Division II qualifying standard in the women's triple jump, with a school-record mark of 37-8 ¾.

Swimming

The University of Washington women's swimming team (3-3, 1-2 Pac-10) won its only home meet of the season, defeating Oregon State 138.5-123.5. Blythe Murray was honored as UW's lone senior.

Washington won seven of 14 events and posted two top-10 times, including a school record in the 1,000-yard freestyle by sophomore Kim Jasmer (9:53.35).

• Senior Erin McCleave captured three events to lead the Washington State women to victories over Idaho and Boise State in Pullman.

The Cougars defeated the Vandals 159-45 and posted a 103-56 win over the Broncos.

McCleave won the 1,000 freestyle, 200 free and 200 backstroke. • The Puget Sound men and women fell to Simon Fraser in dual meets in Tacoma. The men lost 83-64, and the women lost 103-63.

Rowing

World indoor record holder Luanne Mills of Seattle qualified for the CRASH-B World Indoor Rowing Championships at the Ergomania Northwest Indoor Rowing Championships in Seattle.

The 25th annual event featured nearly 200 competitors, ages 13-80, including five current or former U.S. national team members.

Mills, 68, won the women's lightweight veteran B division (ages 60-69) with a time of 8:10.5 over 2,000 meters. Mills, of Seattle's Pocock Rowing Center, will be making her fifth trip to the world indoor rowing championships.

Compiled from

sports-information reports.

Information in this article, originally published January 28, 2007, was corrected January 30, 2007. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Darrold Williamson, who lost to Washington's Alex Harcourt on Saturday in the men's 400 meters at the UW Indoor Invitational track and field meet, was the reigning Olympic champion in the 400. Williamson ran on the U.S. team that won the 1,600 relay at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.