TRACK AND FIELD — Right in the thick of season play, the Tritons got the a perfect chance to test their depth and flexibility: a small, friendly invite close to home.
UCSD track and field competed in the second annual Mangrum Invitational on April 3, turning in some impressive results at the non-scoring meet, which was held at Cal State San Marcos. No team scores were kept, allowing the Tritons to train in events that were not necessarily their best.
The meet was a welcome reprieve after the team’s outstanding performance at the high profile Cal/Nevada Championships the week before.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to rest people or move them around as we need to,” said women’s coach Darcy Ahner. “It allows us to qualify more people in the relay events, and it can give people a chance to try more events as well.”
Several nearby universities showed up to the meet — including the University of Southern California and UC Irvine — but none of the Tritons’ conference opponents participated. This gave UCSD a chance to experiment a little and fine tune for bigger meets later in the season.
On the women’s side, junior Kelly Fogarty blew by the competition in the 100-meter dash to clock a time of 11.90 seconds. The school-record holder also anchored the Tritons’ winning 4×100-meter relay team.
“Kelly has had so much fire this year, and its been really fun to watch,” Ahner said.
Senior Linda Rainwater won three events, recording the top marks in the shot put, javelin throw and high jump. A former All-American in the heptathlon, Rainwater will look to build on her success in the field events at the Mt. Sac heptathlon in Azusa on April 14.
The men’s team was lead by Fred Cook: The senior shot putter hit 52’ 2” to win the event and record a provisional NCAA Division-II championships qualifier. Senior Daniel Anderson turned in a similarly magnificent performance, breaking four minutes in his first attempt at 1500 meters with a time of 3:54.40. He earned second place in the event, only a week after he broke a 17-year-old school record in the 800-meter race. Anderson recorded a time of 1:51.12 seconds in the preliminaries of the Cal/Nevada Championships, and bested Mark Yuen’s 1993 record by 0.14 seconds.
“That meant a lot to me,” Anderson said. “I’ve been dealing with injuries and I haven’t really had a strong healthy season in a while, so I’ve been waiting to break that record for a long time.”
Head Coach Tony Salerno emphasized the significance of Anderson’s performance.
“The record is a big one,” Salerno said. “We’re really happy to see him show that kind of talent.”
Anderson’s time is among the top in Division-II this year, and he said he hopes he can push through to first place at the conference and national championships.
“My ultimate goal is to win nationals,” he said. “I haven’t taken a conference title yet, and that’s something I’d really like to do.”
The Cal/Nevada meet was an overall success for the Tritons: The women placed sixth and the men 10th, against some of the top programs on the West Coast. UCSD had the top Division-II squad for both men and women.
Most of the team will head to the highly competitive Pomona-Pitzer Invitational on April 10, although some runners will head to the UCLA Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational on the same day.
Readers can contact Liam Rose at [email protected].
