The buses rolled out at 7:30 a.m. last Saturday as the UCSD Track and Field team headed to the All-University of California meet at UC Irvine’s Anteater Stadium. Both genders finished second to UC Santa Barbara, beating Irvine and Riverside along the way.
“We competed well today against some pretty good Division I programs,” UCSD Men’s head coach Tony Salerno said to the UCSD Athletics Department. “Things are definitely coming together for us as we look ahead to the Cal-Nevada and CCAA Championship meets in the weeks ahead.”
Senior Zack Nagengast led the Tritons in the throwing component. Nagengast won the discus event with a 154’ mark despite toe-fouling his best throw of the day. Nagengast also took fourth in the shot put and second in the hammer throw at 174’2”.
The best hammer throw of the day belonged to senior A.B. Shaheen, serving up a 187’7” shot to take home the win. The mark breaks Shaheen’s own Lebanese national record in the event, previously set two years ago.
“I need to get over sixty meters (197’) so I can compete in European meets after I graduate, but it just feels so good to finally set a new personal best,” Shaheen said. “I also only need a few inches to edge past Fred Cook on the all-time list!”
Cook was the Triton’s MVP of the CCAA meet in 2010, taking the podium in shot put, discus and hammer.
Sophomore Nash Howe and senior Kiley Libuit took two-three in the javelin, senior Ryan Eckert finished second in the shot put, and freshman Jeffrey Shu set a new personal best in the discus at 123’.
Juniors Ben Berthet and Clint Rosser finished third and fourth in the pole vault, reaching NCAA Provisional national qualifiers at 15’5.” Both pole vaulters are limited at the moment by short poles, and will be moving up to longer poles and larger clearances for NCAA Championship berths in the coming weeks.
On the track, Keith Rose won the 200m at 21.86, and finished second in the 100m at 10.79. Rose is on track to break the school records in both events with such a good early season start.
On the runway, senior Quentin McWhorter won the triple jump at 45’0.5”, and sophomore Kyle Chiu pulled his hamstring.
Freshman Kevin Chiao broke into the UCSD top-ten all-time list with his 15.15 performance in the high hurdles. Standing just 5’3”, facing a high hurdle of 3’6”, expect big things from this freshman in future meets.
Sophomore Sabrina Pimentel led the Tritons on the women’s side, setting a blistering pace in the 800m of 2:13.05. This NCAA Provisional qualifier sets her up nicely to go back to her hometown of Pueblo, Colo. for the NCAA Championships later this June.
Other standouts were freshmen Meghan Benham and Sydney Blakeley, who finished with clearances at 11’5.75” in the pole vault, good enough for first and second place, respectively.
Over in the sand pits, junior Chantia Justice and freshman Kristin Sato tied for second in the triple jump with the mark of 37’6.75”.
On the track, senior Chelsey Kamson and freshman Amy Heins lit up the track in the 200m. Kamson and Heins went one-two with the times of 25.63 and 25.87.
Perhaps the best overall performance of the day came from senior Jessica Miklaski in the women’s javelin throw. Her spear was just 2” shy of her personal best from the previous week, beating the field by more than ten feet at 143’2”. An All-American in the event two years ago, the senior spear chucker has the UCSD school record and a Division II National Title in her sights.
Watch the Tritons this Saturday, March 9 as they host all the San Diego colleges at their San Diego City Meet at Spanos Stadium.
