TRACK AND FIELD — With the most hectic week of the 2008
season approaching, the Tritons took part in the UCLA Rafer Johnson/Jackie
Joyner-Kersee meet on April 10 to 12 and placed seven athletes in the top five
in their respective fields. The three-day event was held at UCLA’s historic
Drake Stadium and hosted many of the Division I national leaders, yet the
Tritons had no problems holding their own in the tough competition.
“I was very satisfied with how the team did this past
weekend,” women’s head coach Darcy Ahner said. “I feel like there were a lot of
great individual performances and overall they had a great feel of intensity.”
The women were led by sophomore jumper Linda Rainwater’s
first place finish in the open high jump, as her leap of 5’05.25” was .25
inches higher than that of
setting the all-time UCSD record at last weekend’s Divisional Challenge, senior
pole-vaulter Christina Sloyer placed third at the UCLA meet with a mark of
11’7.75”. Senior jumper Whitney Johnson earned a fourth-place finish in the
invitational triple jump, an event that was won by UCLA’s Division-I
All-American Renee Williams.
On the men’s side, sophomore jumper Casey Ryan took third
place in the open high jump with his mark of 6’6”. The other top-five for the
Triton men was third place junior distance runner Jake LeVieux, with a time of
9:34.86 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, also good for third place. LeVieux’s
time in the event earned him CCAA Athlete of the Week honors, the fifth such
award for a member of the track and field team this season. Ahner was
especially proud of how the Tritons were not mentally intimidated by such
top-notch competition.
“[The UCLA meet] definitely is a different type of meet,”
Ahner said. “Drake stadium has a real big time feel to it and our divisional
challenge last weekend was a home meet so there was a lot of comfort for us.
They handled the meet really well and didn’t get intimidated at all.”
The most recent power rankings, as compiled by the U.S.
Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, has UCSD’s women in
first place with the Triton men coming in at sixth place. Last season, the
women finished in second and the men did not even crack the top-10, signifying
how much the 2008 squad accomplished.
“In most sports there are power rankings where it’s just
coaches voting, but in track everybody submits their best marks in all events
and the teams are then matched up head to head,” men’s head coach Tony Salerno
said. “It indicates the overall strength of the program for how we score at
dual meets so it allows us to compare ourselves against national teams that we
would normally never compete against.”
The Tritons will participate in three different competitions
spread out all over
UCSD’s distance runners are currently competing in the Azusa
Heptathlon/Decathlon, which started on April 15 and ends today. After the
specialized meet, almost all of the team will participate in the Beach
Invitational at
on April 19. Along with those two meets, some of the Triton’s top athletes will
travel to Walnut,
Mt. Sac Relays, the site of the National Championships in early May. Participating
in the
competition will allow a select few from the Tritons to get comfortable at a
stadium where they hope to dominate at nationals.
“These are the meets to sharpen us up,” Ahner said. “This is
the time that we are starting to get into our peak so these meets are a great
opportunity to roll us into the conference championships and nationals after
that.”
With such high rankings and season-long worth of momentum,
the Tritons look poised to make a strong run in the remaining few weeks of
regular season competition before charging into the California Collegiate
Athletic Association Championships and the national finals.
“Right now we just need to keep the feeling of just going
for it, to let yourself compete and not think too much,” Ahner said. “It is
always easy for UCSD students to think too much, so it’s important to just go
in with complete confidence.”
The men, who have not had an all-american since the 2006
campaign, have a legitimate shot this season to finish in the top three at the
CCAA finals and send a sizable contingent to nationals. The women hope to
retain their No. 1 ranking for the rest of the year and make a run at the
program’s first Division-II National Championship title.
“The only challenge for the women will be the fact that the
rules allow us to only bring 32 athletes to the conference championships, so
there will be people who would certainly do great but have to get left at
home,”
having too many qualified athletes is definitely the best type of problem to
have.”
