TRACK AND FIELD — With only three meets completed in the
early 2008 season, the UCSD track and field team proved that this year will be
one for the record books. After opening their season at the annual Rossi
Relays, the Tritons traveled to
for the All-Cal Championships on March 1 and turned in one of the best days in
school history. At the meet, the women’s team took first place for the first
time ever and the men finished in a very close third. The Tritons topped their
All-Cal performance with both the men and women dominating their competition on
March 8 at the San Diego City Championships.
As the marquee event one month into the season, the All-Cal
meet traditionally draws some of the best competition on the West Coast and
this year played host to fellow UC and Division-I schools in UC Santa Barbara,
Riverside, Irvine and Davis.
“The All-Cal win was a huge breakthrough performance for our
team,” senior jumper Whitney Johnson said. “We have come so close to the top in
the past years at All-Cal. I believe we made a very strong statement that day,
and, proved just how big of a threat UCSD is, regardless of the division we are
in. We finally set the record straight.”
Head coach Tony Salerno viewed the All-Cal win as a
milestone in the track and field program and predicted that his team will only
continue to build off of its success.
“I would rate this win ahead of any of our [California
Collegiate Athletics Association] Championships or our eighth place finish at
nationals last year,”
“To get those numbers this early in March is something really special. We’re in
a really good place right now.”
As if the win at All-Cal wasn’t enough, the Tritons returned
home this past weekend to host the SD City Championships and took yet another
first-place finish over a field that included powerhouse cross-town rivals San
Diego State and the University of San Diego. The women placed first with 217.5
overall points, just enough to beat out second-place SDSU’s 204. The men were
able to win with more breathing room, as their 193.5 points were more than
enough to edge out
134.5.
Johnson’s leap of 19’2” in the long jump and junior Sarah
Hendy’s throw of 158’4” in the discus were both good enough to earn automatic
qualification for the NCAA National Championships in May. The Triton women also
received five provisional national qualifiers, including two from sophomore
hurdler Christine Merrill, whose times in the 100- and 400-meter hurdles of 14.46
and 1:02.21, respectively, were also good enough to get her first place,
beating a very talented Aztec hurdling team.
“It was a really good day for everyone, which got me
excited,” Merrill said. “Since the whole team was running well, it made me
concentrate really hard. The success definitely carried over from All-Cal last
weekend; the momentum really helped. The whole team works really well together,
we all get each other excited to compete; we are really like a big family.”
On the men’s side, the team won 12 of the 18 scored events,
with Nick Morilla’s throw of 15.54 in the shot-put both winning the day’s event
and going down as the third best throw in UCSD history. Although the Triton
women occasionally get more attention than the men, both squads merited the
same amount of praise with their performance at the SD City Championships.
“You can’t really slight the men’s performance,”
said. “They are really good and it’s unfortunate that sometimes the women, who
are normally ranked first or second in the nation, overshadow them. The men are
top 20 in the nation and to come against these teams here and be pretty much
dominant is impressive.”
The UCSD women have now beat five Division-I teams in the
past two weeks, proving that they are truly the country’s best Division-II
squad. A key ingredient to the team’s success is a balanced roster, which is
full of athletes that can step up on any given day.
“This season we can probably expect a lot of new people to
step into the limelight,” Johnson said. “There are definitely not just a few
stars on the team. Anyone can have a massive breakthrough at any given meet. As
a team, we just need to stay united, stay consistent and stay focused on each
goal.”
UCSD will next travel down the road to the Aztec Invitational,
hosted by SDSU on March 14 and 15.
