TRACK ‘amp; FIELD ‘mdash; Racing at the Triton Track and Field Stadium for the last time until late April, UCSD took complete advantage of its home field.
The Tritons breezed through the San Diego City Championships last Saturday, with both the men’s and women’s teams winning handily. The women scored 225 points, beating runner-up San Diego State by 30 and obliterating Cal State San Marcos and Point Loma Nazarene. The men’ scored 156.5, defeating second-place Point Loma by 38 points.
‘We thought we would win by a slim margin on the men’s side, and we thought the women’s side would be pretty even,’ head coach Tony Salerno said. ‘The last six years the women had gone 2-2-1 against SDSU, and this was out biggest margin of victory yet.’
The Triton women had big relay races, winning comfortably in the 4×400 meter relay and edging out SDSU in the 4×100. Junior Christine Merrill and senior Katie Scorupa ran on both relay teams, and sophomore record holder Kelly Fogarty anchored the 4×100 meter team in addition to winning the 100 meter dash. Merrill also won the 200 meter dash and finished fourth in the 100 meter hurdles. Junior Linda Rainwater showed why she is the reigning conference champion in the heptathlon, running on the 4×400 team, winning the high jump with the same height that helped her snag 11th place in last season’s NCAA Championships and coming in second in the 800 meter run.
In the distance events, sophomore Bre Schofield won the 1500 meter run with a time of 4:34, dominating her race and winning by 14 seconds. In all, the women’s team won 13 of their 18 events.
Junior Mike Wright, who placed first in the 1500 meter run, emphasized the perks of competing at home.
‘We have one of the best facilities I have ever competed in, because it’s just for track and field, and we don’t have to share it with other programs,’ Wright said. ‘ The men were led by junior Casey Ryan, also a guard for the basketball team, who tied a school record of 6’11” in the high jump. Ryan bested his personal record by a quarter inch one day after playing in UCSD’s conference semifinal basketball game.
Junior Fred Cook won the shot put and hammer throw and placed third in the discus. Senior Scott Tsuda took the triple jump by nearly four feet and placed third in the long jump. ‘ On the track, senior Connor McCabe swept the 100 and 200 meter dashes and junior Leon Baham won both the 400 meter hurdles and 110 meter high hurdles.
Readers can contact Liam Rose at [email protected].