The UCSD men’s and women’s track and field teams distinguished themselves as top contenders at the April 11 and April 12 California-Nevada State Collegiate Track and Field Championships held at SDSU.
Guardian file
The Tritons’ performance was accentuated by the fact that senior Audrey Sung pulled off the formidable task of winning one of the heats of a 3,000-meter race in a meet that featured top competitors from over 35 schools from California and Nevada at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I, II, III and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics levels.
“”The competition was absolutely top-notch, well beyond the national championships for Division II,”” said UCSD head coach Tony Salerno.
Sung was impressive as the leading scorer for the women’s team by accumulating 10 points for her first-place finish in the 3,000. Sung repeated her 2002 performance in winning the 3,000-meter event. The Triton women finished 15th in the team competition, tied with rival UC Davis. Host school SDSU won the team championship.
Guardian file
Sung’s time of 9:53.59 was also an NCAA Championship-qualifying performance.
UCSD’s men’s track and field team placed 12th in team scoring at the meet. UCLA won the men’s championship with 214 points. Freshman Mike Cunningham was the leading scorer for the Tritons with a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 110-meter hurdles and 400- meter hurdles.
The proceedings of the meet began on April 11 at 11 a.m. with the preliminaries of three field events and the women’s 4×100 relay, with the exception of the women’s hammer throw and the 3,000 race, as well as the men’s javelin and both the steeplechase races.
The Triton women who dominated Friday’s events included junior Sagrario Hernandez in the shotput, freshmen Kaylin Siever and Kendra Canape in the triple and high jump, respectively, who all qualified for Saturday’s finals in their respective events. The UCSD women entered the final day of competition at sixth place in the team competition.
Standouts on the men’s side from April 11 were David Dunbar’s ninth-place finish in the final of the steeplechase with a time of 9:29.49. In qualifying events, UCSD’s 4×100 relay and 4×400 relay qualified for the final on April 12.
Cunningham qualified for the finals in both the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.02 and the 400 hurdles at 53.55. Abel Aramburo qualified for the final in the discus throw with an NCAA Championship qualifying performance of 166’2″”.
On April 12, the field events began at 11 a.m. with men’s discus and men’s shotput, while the women’s 5,000 final started at 1 p.m.
“”Some years ago we would have been intimidated by the competition, now they’re quite eager to take on Division I competition,”” Salerno said.
A series of solid individual performances captured the determination the Tritons needed to achieve strong results. Canape contributed a fourth-place high jump of 5’5.25”, Siever had a triple jump of 37’3” that placed her seventh in the competition and seventh in the all-time records at UCSD. Hernandez also placed seventh in the shotput event with a toss of 46’9.5”.
School records were broken across the board. Seniors Jackie Vu and Juliana Mittino tied an existing school record with pole vaults clearing 11’6.5”, which was also a NCAA qualifying mark for both vaulters.
Junior Julie Pope completed the 3,000 steeplechase in 11:34.16, which was the second-best, all-time UCSD mark. Freshman Mimi Hodgins finished the 800 in 2.18.87, which was the eighth-best, all-time UCSD record, and Elizabeth Tsu, Sandy Schaefer, Hillary Mills and Courtney Aberegg together captured the eighth-best, all-time UCSD mark with their 4×400 relay, clocking in at 3:59.50.
The men’s team had several standouts in a wide range of events. In addition to Cunningham’s duo of fourth-place finishes in the 110 and 400 hurdles, the Tritons turned in solid performances in a number of other events.
Cunningham also assisted in the eighth-place finish of the 4×400 relay team by running in a relay which also included Matt Horner, Brian Parisi and Matt Borzage.
Another eighth-place finish was handed in by junior Abel Aramburo, with a discus throw of 166’2”, the third-best all-time UCSD mark and a NCAA provisional qualifying mark.
UCSD’s distance team’s junior Neil Kalra was cited by Salerno as “”outstanding”” and blew past contenders to take the sixth-place position in the arduous 5,000 race with a time of 15:06.28.
There was also a pair of ninth-place finishes in the 3,000 steeplechase, when freshman Carl Lostrom had the 10th-best all-time UCSD standing on the record books with a run of 9:35.74, which complimented Dunbar’s earlier 9:29.49 time in the same event. The meet’s competition was tough as evidenced by the fact that SDSU’s women’s track and field team won just six of the meet’s 20 events to pull out a victory. UCSD bettered or equaled many strong Division I and highly ranked schools, which highlights the team’s taste for competition and to showcase its athletic progression within the season.
“”It was our best overall performance and a good statement on our [athletic] programs,”” Salerno said.
On April 18, the Tritons will head back to action at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational Claremont that begins at 9 a.m. in Claremont, Calif.
