The men’s and women’s track and field squads sent nine athletes to compete at the NCAA Division II National Championships, held from May 26 to May 28 in Abilene, Texas, and walked away from the competition with four All-American titles and a National Coach of the Year award for head coach Tony Salerno.
Overdrive:
The championships started out strong for the Tritons as the eight regional Coach of the Year recipients gathered for the presentation of the national award. UCSD’s Salerno was selected by the other schools’ coaches to hold the title.
Salerno was quick to point out that he accepted the award on behalf of the entire coaching staff.
“I just help with the throwing events and organizing the big stuff,” he said. “Each event coach deserves this award.”
Salerno added that the award came as a surprise.
“I was expecting to get regional coach of the year, which did happen,” he said. “But this was a nice surprise, considering the caliber of competition. And since it’s voted on by the other coaches, it validates what we do.”
Of Salerno’s athletes, juniors Mimi Hodgins and Mike Cunningham, and seniors Lindsay Stalker and Kendra Canape left the competition with All-American titles.
Hodgins took a second-place finish in the 800-meter run with her time of 2:02.02. She missed a first-place finish by only .26 seconds.
Teammate Stalker took fifth place in the 800 with her time of 2:13.52, and also placed third in the 1500 race earlier in the day with a time of 4:30.02. Her goal going into the meet was to be an All-American in both events, meaning she would have to place in the top eight.
“It couldn’t have been better,” Stalker said. “I’m still in shock that I did it. Running is my passion; it’s what I love to do. My coach and I decided I’d race both events because I love to run, and the ultimate goal was to be All-American in both.”
These events concluded Stalker’s collegiate career. She said she is grateful to her event coach, Ted VanArsdale.
“All he would say to me was ‘I dare you to be great,’ and I took on the challenge,” Stalker said. “He’s an amazing man. And I’d like to thank Mimi for being a wonderful teammate. Our women’s team had never been in the top 20 before, and we finished 14th.”
Freshman Whitney Johnson finished 16th in the nation with her mark of 11.68 meters in the women’s triple jump, 8 1/2 inches away from finishing in the top eight.
Canape also left the field as an All-American athlete, placing eighth in the women’s high jump with a final mark of over 5-7. The bar was initially set at 5-4 1/4.
“The competition at Nationals is ridiculous,” she said. “Normally, when the bar is that high, there’s only a few people left. But this time, I looked around and there were still 17 people waiting to jump. The feeling of ‘I have to make this jump or go home’ is crazy.”
Because Canape finished her competition on Friday night, she was able to watch the daytime events on Saturday.
“Watching Mimi was amazing,” she said. “You could see her leave everything on the track. She missed being national champion by six inches. And Mikey Cunningham dropped a second in the 400 hurdles. You just don’t do that in the 400 hurdles. It was amazing.”
Cunningham finished in second place in the men’s 400 hurdles with a new personal record of 51.16 seconds. He was just three-tenths of a second behind the national champion, Adrian Findlay of St. Augustine’s. Cunningham was ranked 12th when he entered, but had hoped to place second in the event.
Senior Kevin Beeman participated in the men’s high-jump finals on May 28, and placed 10th out of 16 competitors. Beeman jumped 6-7, but was two inches away from the six-way tie for fourth place.
Salerno is already looking forward to the next track and field season. He said that the Tritons have another great recruiting class for next year and that both the men’s and women’s teams are going to have a great year.
“I would just like to congratulate my team and my coaching staff for taking on the challenge this year and for stepping things up,” Salerno said. “They’ve learned to be fearless.”
