TRACK & FIELD — Competing in three different events from
April 16 to 20, UCSD was able to maneuver numerous meets with flying colors en
route to setting many NCAA provisional marks and giving athletes invaluable
experience in the waning weeks of the regular season. Although the hectic
week’s format was unusual for the Tritons, the coaching staff helped organize all
of the athletes to maximize their performances.
“Most people competed at only one meet, and were able to
focus on their events,” junior distance runner Jake LeVieux said. “Practice was
a little scrambled, but it didn’t disorient the team in my opinion. The coaches
planned it out so no one was too burdened and everyone knew what they were
doing.”
On April 16, the Tritons traveled to Walnut,
for the prestigious Mt. SAC Relays, where they faced off against some of the
top collegiate and professional teams in the nation. Sophomore jumper and
hurdler Linda Rainwater led the Tritons at day one of the relays by totaling
4,998 points to earn her a 13th place finish.
While Rainwater was at the meet in Walnut, three other
Tritons were participating in the California Invitational held at
Freshman Stephanie LeFever earned a seventh-place spot in the open heptathlon,
good enough for second-best in the all-time UCSD record book and gaining her an
NCAA Division-II provisional qualifying mark. Senior Kayleigh Knudson set a
personal best mark by amassing 4,528 points en route to a 17th-place finish and
the third-best mark in school history. The lone representative for the men’s
team at the California Invitational was sophomore multi-event runner Andrew Van
Straaten, who scored 6,169 points in the decathlon to place ninth overall.
The highlight of the tough, five-day stretch was senior
distance runner Emily McGregor running an automatic national qualifying time of
35:26 in the 10,000-meter race on day two of the
the race before, yet in her debut was able to set the all-time UCSD record for
the event. On the same day at the competition, senior distance runner Dianne
Dunn eclipsed a national qualifying mark in the 5,000-meter race with her time
of 17:39.38.
The Tritons have only one meet, their annual Triton
Invitational, remaining in the regular season before the California Collegiate
Athletics Association Championships begin on May 1. As the biggest home meet of
the season, the Triton Invitational draws some of the best competition on the
West Coast, but with conference championships and nationals right around the
corner, men’s head coach Tony Salerno and women’s head coach Darcy Ahner will
be forced to manage conservatively and rest some of their athletes before the
postseason.
“By this point everyone is close to the best shape they will
be this season, so not too much intense training will go on as many of us will
be tapering,” LeVieux said. “Many [athletes] won’t be running at the Triton
Invitational, our most competitive home meet, because the coaches want us to
have the maximum amount of rest. Also, a little cutback in our training will
help us rather than hurt us.”
