Hot Off the Blocks

    On the men’s side, senior thrower Dane Sandifer clawed his way to the school’s top 10 list with a discus throw of 156’3.5”, coming in second to fellow Triton, junior Zach Nagengast, who ended his long day with a mark of 158’3.5”.

    Earlier in the day, Nagengast also won the hammer with a throw of 170’6.5” and followed up with a third-place finish in the shot put.

    The junior is pushing NCAA marks, hoping to make those marks next week at the Rossi Relays Invitational at Claremont.

    Triton senior jumper KaWai Ng made the leap to sit among the school record holders in the triple jump.

    The Hong Kong native jumped an astounding personal best of 49’6.5”.

    The mark is a provisional qualifying mark — an especially strong one seeing as it only took 48’10” to make the NCAA National meet in 2011.

    Ng also took first in the long jump with a mark of 22’4.5”, ahead of senior jumps captain Jeff Head, 21’8”, and senior Shaun Tu, 20’11”.

    Other event winners on the Triton men’s side include sophomore Kellen Levy, who ran an 8:40.59 to take the 3k ahead of sophomore Ben Rich — who crossed the line eight seconds later for second place.

    Junior transfer Quentin McWhorter won the 110m hurdles with the time of 15.96.

    Freshman standout Jake Herbold won the 400m hurdles with a time of 55.93s, a scoring mark at last year’s conference meet and an amazing time for such a young collegiate career.

    Jake “The Snake” is going to be an all-American to watch out for. Sophomore Ben Berthet set a personal best in the pole vault at 14’9 inches to open a very promising run at the CCAA crown.

    Senior all-rounder Nicholas Howe took the high jump at 6’3.5”, but was disappointed to not go higher after clearing 6’9” last week at the alumni meet.

    Although the men stood out, the women shone brighter, with senior sprint team captain Jacqueline Rose and senior jumps team captain Erin Langford leading the way.

    The women’s 4x400m relay started with freshman Elexi Snover running a strong first leg and handing off the baton to freshman Jessica Beerman right in the middle of the pack.

    Beerman also kept her ground and gave the stick to Rose in a similar position.

    Rose had an outstanding run and pulled away from the field by more than 10 meters to hand off to junior anchor Kathleen Hitchens, who added insult to injury and several more meters to make the winning time 49.13.

    Although this time does not crack the UCSD top 10, it is a good start with such a young squad.

    Rose then returned to the track for the 400 meter, where she led the entire length for a personal record of 55.82, moving her to within several tenths of a second of the school record, and stands as a provisional qualifier for the NCAA National Meet.

    Rose also won the 200m with a 25.46 personal record, helping the women’s 4x400m team — Irish, Snover, Meagher, Rose — put the final touches on the UCSD women’s 169-91 victory.

    Another standout of the day was junior thrower Jessica Miklaski, who threw 134’3” — an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.

    The junior was satisfied with her throw.

    “There’s still more to come, its really early in the season so to be throwing this far now is exciting,” she said. “But at the same time, I really want to throw farther. For now I’m really happy though.”
    Langford, a senior, jumped to set a new personal record of 37’10” in the triple jump, winning that event along with the long jump, and setting a staggering third NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the triple for the Triton Women’s squad.

    “Any time you can get four national qualifying marks in a season opener it’s a good day,” UCSD men’s head coach Anthony Salerno said. “Both teams competed very well against two long-time rivals in Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Cal Poly Pomona.”

    Freshman Veronica Bradley also had a good first-ever collegiate meet, winning the high jump at 5’3” and coming in second in the long jump to Langford and third in the triple jump at 36” even.

    On the throws side, the Tritons won six of the eight events, with the women throwers winning every event they competed in: Miklaski took the javelin, sophomore Eva Isaacs won the shotput at 38’4” and junior Uchenna Agbahiwe finished first in the discus at 136’9”, with senior Shana Emile taking the hammer throw at 144’2.5”.

    “It was a good start to the season,” women’s head coach Darcy Ahner said. “And [it is] always great to see so many event winners and early season personal records.”

    Both the UCSD Men’s and Women’s track teams head to the Rossi Relays at Pomona this coming Saturday in Claremont, where competition will begin at 12 p.m.

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