Track And Field Heads To MPSF Indoor Championships

Long Beach State will look to qualify a number of athletes for the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Feb. 28, 2008

Long Beach, Calif. - LONG BEACH - Long Beach State draws closer to the end of the indoor track and field season at the MPSF indoor championships. The 49ers head to Seattle for the two-day event beginning on Friday.

The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championships start this Friday in Seattle. The first event for the 49ers is the weight throw beginning at Noon, and the 49ers will close their time in Seattle with the men's 4x400m relay Saturday afternoon.

The MPSF works as a merger between the Big West and the Pac-10 to provide a conference atmosphere for sports that not all schools participate in, such as water polo and indoor track and field. However, the MPSF produces many of the top times annually and sends a number of athletes to the NCAA Championships.

In addition to the conference meet atmosphere as one of two Big West schools participating in indoor track and field, the 49ers will also focus on meeting qualifying marks for the NCAA Indoor Championsips, occurring two weeks from now in Fayetteville, Ark.

On the men's side the 49ers have a number of athletes who will be looking to make a solid mark in the team's first low-elevation meet this year. Sprinter Brent Gray already met an NCAA provisional mark in the 200m earlier this season at Northern Arizona, and will try to shave off the time necessary to qualify automatically after just missing the NCAA Championships last season. Gray enters the event as the top seed, and is also highly placed in the 60m and will serve as the anchor for the 4x400m relay.