Utah State campus briefs

TRACK AND FIELD: At Nampa, Idaho, junior Sonia Grabowska broker her previous Utah State record (4.20m) clearing 13-11.25 (4.25m) to win the Western Athletic Conference pole vault title at Jackson Indoor Track on Friday at the 2011 WAC Indoor Championships.

Grabowska surpassed the provisional qualifying mark for the third time this season making her eligible to receive an invitation to the NCAA Indoor Championships that will be held in College Station, Texas on March 11-12.

This was Grabowska's first WAC indoor pole vault title.

"Sonia is a competitor," said USU veteran head coach Gregg Gensel. "When she does things well, she gets really excited. She is a great athlete and works really hard. I know she is really excited and so is our coaching staff."

After two days of competition, the Aggie women are in first place with 60 points with Nevada (50 pts.) and Boise State (49 pts.) in second and third, respectively. On the men's side, Boise State (54 pts.) has a four-point advantage over Utah State (50 pts.) with Idaho sitting in third-place with 36 points.

"We pride ourselves in our distance running, with our cross country championships and the distance medley and 5000-meter races," said Gensel.

"We earned a lot of points today with the medley and 5K's that have put us in a great position."

The USU men's distance medley team won their fifth-straight WAC title with a time of 9:59.38, good enough for fourth all-time in the school record books.

The men's team consists of seniors James Allred, Eric Larson, Jason Holt and freshman Devin Lang. Both Allred and Larson were on the 2010 WAC champion distance medley relay team. The Aggie women's distance medley team finished in a close second with a time of 11:50.29, breaking the school record. The women's team includes senior Alicia Wilkins, junior Jessi Chugg, sophomore Aubrie Haymore and freshman Hannah Williams.

Junior Ruth Hilton crossed the finish line in the 5000m with a time of 17:13.15 giving her second-place ahead of teammates Kim Quinn in fifth (17:33.47) and Alex Litzsinger in sixth (17:35.88). In the high jump, freshman Chari Hawkins finished tied for fourth with a jump of 5-05.75 (1.67m) with sophomore Bri Campbell and junior Madison Jensen ended up tied for sixth-place with a mark of 5-03.75 (1.62m). Hawkins also finished tied for sixth in the long jump (18-05.75 [5.63m]).