UCSD’s track and field team ended its regular season with what head coach Tony Salerno called the team’s best meet of the season at the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships this weekend at UCSD’s Triton Track and Field Stadium.
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The host Tritons took second in the women’s competition and fifth on the men’s side, improving on last year’s fourth-place women’s finish and maintaining last year’s fifth-place men’s standing.
The women’s team finished with 104 points, but its total was well behind UC Davis, which had 220 points en route to its fourth consecutive women’s CCAA title. Chico State took third with 99 points, followed by Cal State Stanislaus with 92 points in the 10-team field.
“”We knew we would be in a position to do well,”” Salerno said. “”We got all of the breaks, and everyone competed really well. We thought it would be really close for second place, but we just had a phenomenal meet across the board. In a lot of ways, it wasn’t about the people who finished first, second or third — it’s the sixth, seventh and eighth place ones that got us one or two points, and that was what made a difference.””
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Meredith Perry stunned the 100-meter high hurdles field with a first-place finish over defending champion Melissa Ferguson of UC Davis and runner-up Michelle Green of Cal State Dominguez Hills with a time of 14.69 — the second-fastest in school history, but just short of the 14.65 required for a National Collegiate Athletic Association provisional qualification to the Division II national championships.
Though Perry’s title stands alone for the women, the other Tritons did not walk away without accolades of their own, setting numerous school records and top-10 marks during the two-day event.
Megan Bergin, already an NCAA provisional qualifier in the hammer throw, set a UCSD record with a mark of 166’1” to surpass the 164’9” set by Tara Monaghan in 1996. The 400-meter relay team of Elizabeth Tsu, Aileen Sabio, Alison McGrane and Hillary Mills also set a school record with a time of 3:54.47, beating out the 1996 relay team’s mark of 3:55.74.
Audrey Sung set personal records in the 1,500- and 3,000-meters, both of which she has already earned NCAA provisional qualifications for. Sung’s 10:01.41 in the 3,000 meter earned her a second-place finish and her 4:38.99 in the 1,500 garnered a third-place standing. The 2001 All-American Sung in the 3,000 meters also finished fifth in the 5,000 meters, the third event in which she has a provisional bid.
“”If I had to pick out some stars, one would be Meredith Perry, who won the 100-meter hurdles and also finished fifth in the pole vault with a PR,”” Salerno said. “”With her, she’s barely been able to train because of injury. With Audrey Sung, she scored in the 1,500, 3,000, and came back in the 5,000 because she knew her points were going to be important, and as it turns out, those were. She realizes she may be a little more tired going into nationals, but she wanted to do this for the team. Those are the two real standouts.””
Another achievement on the women’s team was Minnie Hernandez’s second-place finish in the shot put. Her mark of 45-9 — a personal best and second farthest in school history — was a quarter-inch short of tying Cal State Bakersfield’s April Burton for first place. It still earned Hernandez a provisional bid to the national championships.
Other performances that ranked in the school’s top 10 include Mills in the 400-meter low hurdles, Lynne Brinkman, Catherine Nolan and Lisa Caldwell in the javelin, Julie Pope and Lillian Gardiner in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Jackie Vu in the pole vault, Clara Wilson in the long jump, Sara Allsup in the discus, and the 100-meter relay team.
On the other side, the men’s team and its 80 points followed champion Chico State University’s 224 points, UC Davis, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Bakersfield in the eight-team competition. The Wildcats’ win snapped UC Davis’ three-year CCAA title reign.
Senior Rob Ewanio turned in a career performance, defending his conference shot put championship with a personal-best throw of 60-4 1/2 to improve on the school record he set two weeks ago at the UCSD Open and making him one of the favorites heading into nationals.
“”Rob is going in ranked No. 2, and the guy ranked No. 1 is the guy he beat [this weekend]; he usually beats him head-to-head,”” Salerno said. “”You’re looking at a potential champion there.””
Other outstanding performances were turned in by Jon Wong, who finished second in the 1,500 meters with an all-time UCSD top-10 mark of 3:59.69 and also finished sixth in the 800 meters. Wong already has provisional bids in both events.
Julian Nahan finished third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a mark of 9:26.74, which is seventh best all-time for UCSD. Ryan Vincent and Phong Long finished third in the high jump and long jump, respectively. Mark Gomez’s 15’7” in the pole vault was good enough for fourth place and sixth all-time, and Steve Smith’s 1:51.47 in the 400 meters also earned him a fourth-place finish and a top-10 all-time finish. Hans VanDale in the discus, Marcus Keller in the triple jump and Danny Kung in the decathlon all made their marks in the Triton top-10 lists as well.
In all, the squad earned All-CCAA honors (defined as top-three finishes) from six athletes in seven events on the women’s side and six individual selections on the men’s side.
“”The men’s team is really young, and the women’s team was [great],”” Salerno said. “”We did not expect to be second in the conference this early in the program. We thought we would have to sit third or fourth for a year or two to move up, but our athletes thought otherwise. If we got our report card, the women’s team got straight A’s. Part of it was just luck and things working out well. The men’s team did extremely well — it just happened that we had injuries and we were extremely young.””
In the final stretch of the Triton track and field season, the team heads to the NCAA Division II Championships at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, from May 23 to May 25 in hopes of improving on last year’s 29th place men’s finish and 50th for the women.
The number of Triton representatives will be determined when the NCAA selection committee makes its final cut Tuesday morning. The bids will be determined by choosing the top 16 to 18 provisional qualification times in each event, comprising about 300 total slots, according to Salerno.
Regardless of how well-represented they are, Salerno remains confident that those who compete will shine the way they have throughout the season.
“”Once we get there, it’s a new ballgame,”” Salerno said. “”When the big meet comes, we tend to compete well. That’s the result of us going head-to-head with UCLA and other top programs on a frequent basis. [We’re] not intimidated by anyone in any division — I think this is the year where we came into our own.””
