Competing in front of a home crowd for only the second time all season, the UCSD track and field teams dominated the competition at the UCSD Division Challenge on April 7.
Sophomore Daniel Byrne took second in the pole vault with a height of 4.47 meters in the UCSD Divisional Challenge on April 7. Many other Tritons placed well in their events, lifting both the UCSD men’s and women’s team to first-place finishes, the first time both have done so this year.
Held at the Triton Track and Field Stadium, the meet included a mix of five different schools, all from five different collegiate divisions.
Participating in the meet was UC Riverside (Division I), UCSD (Division II), Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps Colleges (Division III), Point Loma Nazarene University (NAIA) and Cuyamaca College (Junior College).
The new style of competition worked in UCSD’s favor, with both the men’s and women’s teams winning first place.
On the men’s side, the Tritons blew away their competition with their 212.5-point performance, 71.5 more than second-place finisher Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps Colleges’ 141.
The Triton women easily won with 224 points, 55 more points than second-place finisher Point Loma Nazarene University’s 179. The clean sweep for UCSD was a first for the 2007 season.
It would be easy to point to the opposition to explain the Tritons’ commanding victories, but much more should be taken into account to show why the wins were in fact hard-fought and well-earned.
Coming off of last weekend’s intense meet at the prestigious Cal-Nevada Championships, many of the top Tritons were rested for the UCSD Division Challenge in preparation for next weekend’s meet at UCLA.
Before the start of the meet, head coach Tony Salerno expressed his thoughts on the practicality of the home race.
“”With 90 athletes on our team, something good will happen,”” Salerno said. “”They all did so well last week, and we want them to be fresh for the big meets coming up. This is still going to be a tough meet for us. [UC] Riverside is a solid Division I team, and I’m glad they’re in the meet to kind of bring the level up a bit. We need that right now.””
The Tritons showed amazing versatility, with victories posted in different events by various athletes, including some by Tritons who had yet to win an event this year.
The women were paced once again by junior hurdler Laiah Blue, whose time of 14.34 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles won her a first-place medal, continuing her streak of at least one victory at every meet so far this season. Blue, who normally also competes in the 400 hurdles and the 4×100 relay, only competed in the one event as a way to rest.
Another Triton allowed to take a break from numerous events was junior jumper Whitney Johnson, who won the long jump, but did not participate in the triple jump like she normally would have. Johnson welcomed the comparatively easy day.
“”It’s hard to come back after such a high-intensity meet and perform well,”” Johnson said. “”Sitting out the triple jump is definitely a good thing, it gives me a chance to rest up. Also, it lets me fine-tune the long jump and work on that.””
Having Blue and Johnson compete less worked wonders for the team as a whole, as it allowed other Tritons to win the events usually taken by the dominant duo.
Sophomore Leah Murphy won the triple jump and junior Amber Green won the 400 hurdles. Also, junior distance runner Diane Dunn won the 1,500 race with a time of 4 minutes, 37.66 seconds.
In two events on the men’s side – the 1,500 and the 3,000 races – it was two Triton athletes battling it out for first place rather than two schools. Junior distance runner Ryan Becijos narrowly edged out sophomore teammate Daniel Anderson in the 1,500 race, while sophomore Jake LeVieux did the same to junior Daniel Hooligan in the 3,000.
Junior hurdler Khalil Hooper once again won the 100 hurdles with a time of 14.94 seconds.
Freshman jumper Casey Ryan continued his strong rookie campaign by taking first in the high jump with a height of 6 feet, 8.25 inches.
Ryan was not satisfied with his showing, and hopes to build on it for the end of the season.
“”I’d like to get a jump of 7 feet this year,”” Ryan said. “”I’m at 6-9 right now, so hopefully I can get that soon. And as a team, we’re hoping to place in the top three for the conference.””
Next up for the Tritons will be the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational hosted by UCLA on April 13 and 14. The athletes will look to earn more NCAA qualifying times to earn a trip to the Division II national championships in Charlotte, N.C. on May 24 through May 26.
