TRACK ‘amp; FIELD ‘mdash; It seems there’s nothing that can faze UCSD’s track and field squad. After a full season of racing top-notch competition, the pressure of competing at nationals and a long nervous trip to Texas did nothing to slow them down.
‘We’ve been putting them against high-level competition all year, so they were pretty well prepared for this,’ head coach Tony Salerno said. ‘But we didn’t expect to come back with three titles.’
At the NCAA Division II Championships, May 21 through May 23, the UCSD track and field team capped off an exceptional season with a third-place finish for the women’s team ‘mdash; the highest any UCSD team has placed at Division II nationals ‘mdash; and three individual national championships, the most the Tritons have ever taken home.
The women finished with 56 points, trailing Lincoln University, who narrowly edged out host Angelo State with 85 points for the championship.
On the opening day of competition, junior Danielle Thu was the first to take home an individual championship, shattering her own school record in the hammer throw. Her 198’8′ mark crushed the competition by almost 14 feet and gave her the title of fifth best in Division II history.
‘She put on a clinic for everyone else,’ Salerno said. ‘After her first throw, everybody started spectating and competing for second.’
Junior Linda Rainwater won her second individual championship in as many years with a victory in the high jump. Rainwater and Central Missouri’s Jenna Schmidt both finished with a mark of 5’9.75′, but Rainwater won the event because she cleared the mark in fewer attempts.
‘I missed my first two attempts at 5’5′, and I was really nervous because that was the height I got out at last year,’ Rainwater said. ‘That set me back a lot because the number of attempts becomes important for placing. But my coach just told me to jump high, because it doesn’t matter how many misses you have if you jump high.’
Rainwater cleared the next three heights on first attempt to take home the title.
Rainwater also placed third in the heptathlon with 5,303 points, breaking her own school record. Despite finishing lower than last season ‘mdash; when she won a national championship in the event ‘mdash; her score was 300 points better this year.
‘It was really stiff competition,’ Rainwater said. ‘It made the event really competitive. It’s really fun when there’s so many people to compete with right at your level.’
Sophomore Stephanie LeFever placed 10th in the same event with a score of 4,954 points.
Junior Christine Merrill came into the 400-meter hurdles as the top seed and did not disappoint, posting a school record of 58.59 seconds to give the Tritons their third individual title. Senior Laiah Blue finished eighth in the same race with a time of 62.80 seconds. Blue also bested her own school record in the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.63 seconds, and went on to take fifth in the event’s finals.
The Tritons relay teams also performed well: Both the 4×100- a
nd 4×400-meter teams recorded new school records. The 4×400 team ‘mdash; Merrill, senior Katie Skorupa, junior Anna Lee McGregor and sophomore Deyna Robinson ‘mdash; recorded a time of 3:42.97 in the preliminaries before finishing fourth in the finals with a time of 3:43.66. The 4×100 team ‘mdash; Merrill, Skorupa, Blue and sophomore Kelly Fogarty ‘mdash; set a new school record with a time of 45.81 seconds in the preliminaries and took fifth in the finals.
Fogarty led the Tritons in the sprinting events, racing in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and finishing 11th and 16th, respectively. Her time of 11.85 seconds in the 100-meter was a personal best and new school record. McGregor’s time of 56.55 seconds in the 400-meter dash earned her 20th place in the event.
In the 1,500-meter run, sophomore Bre Schofield crossed the finish line with a time of 4:34.20 to take seventh.
Senior Sarah Hendy finished fifth in the discus throw with a mark of 152’11’. Junior Marie Archer took 16th in the hammer throw with her throw of 157’10’.
Three Triton men qualified to compete at nationals. California Collegiate Athletic Association Freshman of the Year Nick Howe placed 11th in the javelin throw, an impressive finish to the season in which he was the only first-year thrower competing at nationals. School-record holder junior Casey Ryan cleared 6’9.5′ in the high jump to finish 10th. In the 400-meter hurdles, junior Leon Baham’s time of 55.48 seconds was good for 15th place.
‘The athletes have built a culture where they can step on the track and feel like they can beat anyone,’ Salerno said. ‘It’s really been amazing to watch. I keep thinking every year it’s going to be hard to get better than this, but they keep on doing it.’
Readers can contact Liam Rose at [email protected].