With many athletes sitting this meet out in order to rest for major upcoming events, the UCSD men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Pomona-Pitzer last weekend to compete against 12 local schools and numerous open athletes.
The highlight of the competition was the performance by the Triton 400-meter relay teams, both of which defeated UC Irvine in the finals. Sophomores Damian McCusker, junior Brian Parisi, junior Randall Leyking and sophomore Sam Denes took the race with a time of 3:27.76. The women’s 400-meter relay team, consisting of sophomore Liz Tsu, sophomore Hillary Mills, junior Alison McGrane and sophomore Clara Wilson, beat out a strong Anteater team with a time of 4:01.57, proving they can run with the top schools in the country.
Other highlights came from junior Marcus Keller, who set the fifth all-time longest triple-jump in Triton history last week, beating his previous mark with a jump of 46’4″” to place him third among Triton triple-jumpers. He won first place in the event. On the women’s side, junior Sara Allsup placed second in the women’s discus with a throw of 146’10″”, placing her fifth all-time in UCSD history. Sophomore teammate Catherine Nolan finished in sixth place with a throw of 127’2″”. Freshman Hans Van Dale performed well in the meet as well, coming in fourth in the men’s discus with a throw of 146’7″” to place him ninth all-time in Triton history.
These strong performances gave the Tritons confidence for their trip to Los Angeles to compete in the California Collegiate Athletic Association Duel Meet that will kick off the new season.
Head coach Tony Salerno said, “”We won’t do anything special for preparation. We have to keep the focus on training until the bigger meets, conference championships in May and the numerous meets we have against Division I opponents. March 2 at UC Irvine will be very telling for us. This is the UC Championships. We will be the only Division II school in the meet as well as the only nonscholarships school of course.””
Look for UCSD to turn heads in the CCAA Duel Meet taking place at UCLA.
