TRACK & FIELD — The best athletes — the UCSD track and field team has to offer know the stakes for their final meet of the season. With one quality race, throw or jump, any one of them could return to campus a national champion, and be immortalized in the Triton history books forever.
From May 27 to May 29, UCSD will be represented by 13 athletes — nine women and four men — at the 2010 NCAA Division-II Track and Field Championships held at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C. One of the top programs in the nation, UCSD have several athletes poised to take national titles, including two with the top ranking in their respective events.
“What I like about this group is that most of them are ranked in the top 10 in their event,” head coach Tony Salerno said. “At this level, anybody who is ranked in the top five or so is right there — so that leaves us pretty excited.”
Fresh off her second consecutive Athlete of the Meet award at the CCAA championships last week, senior Christine Merrill will compete in four events in Charlotte. Along with defending her national title in the 400-meter hurdles, Merrill will run the 100-meter hurdles and both the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. This will be Merrill’s fourth straight trip to the D-II national championships.
Junior Kelly Fogarty — who will join Merrill on the relay teams — is similarly slated to compete in four events for the Tritons. Fogarty will enter the championships ranked ninth in both the 100- and 200-meter races, having set school records of 11.74 seconds and 23.97 seconds in the events, respictively, earlier this season.
Senior Linda Rainwater was scratched from the heptathlon lineup due to injury, but is still scheduled to compete as the top seed in the high jump. Rainwater worked through the pain of a fractured back to win conference in the high jump last week. Though she is the defending national champion in the event, Rainwater’s medical clearance will not be certain until just before she leaves for Charlotte.
“If we knew at the time, we would have pulled her; and by the end of the event she needed help off the mat after each jump,” Salerno said. “But she was able to get up and wind it up again, and she got the jump she needed to win. You hear about tough athletes — this was really impressive.”
Even in Rainwater’s absence, UCSD will not be short on talent in the heptathlon. Junior Stephanie LeFever won the conference title in the event. LeFever is also entered in the long jump and 4×400 meter relay, part of her impressive nine-event schedule in Charlotte.
Sophomore Jacqueline Rose and freshman Kathleen Hitchens will join Merrill and Fogarty on the 4×100 team; Rose will also run on the 4×400 team. The squads are ranked ninth and sixth, respectively.
Junior Theresa Richards and senior Marie Archer will represent UCSD in the throwing events, with Richards ranked seventh in the javelin throw and Archer ranked 15th in the hammer throw. Senior Donna LeFever will arrive ranked No. 10 in the pole vault.
On the men’s side, senior Casey Ryan leads the team as UCSD’s other top-ranked athlete. Already the school record holder in the event, Ryan holds the national lead by nearly three inches; at 7’3.25”.
Fellow senior Leon Baham is making his second straight trip to nationals for the 400-meter hurdles — this time, as the sixth seed with a time of 52.18 seconds.
After an exceptional season in which he won nearly every race he entered — including the CCAA title in the 110 and 400 hurdles — Baham said he is more than ready to compete at nationals.
“I’m in the best shape of my life, I’m hurdling the best I ever have and I’m faster than I ever have been,” Baham said. “I’ve taken care of myself, and we’ll just see what happens with my competitors when we get on the track. I like my odds though.”
The returning national champion in the javelin throw — Felipe Ortiz of the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez — will not compete this year, which leaves the event wide open. UCSD sophomore Nick Howe is currently ranked third, and will look to capitalize on Ortiz’s absence after finishing seventh at the 2009 championship meet.
After battling injuries earlier this year, senior Daniel Anderson emerged to have a breakout season. He is ranked eigth for 800-meter race, but the top runners ten are all seperated by less than two seconds.
An experienced squad, eight of the thirteen Tritons travelling to Charlotte have competed in the national meet before.
“The level is quite high at the top end of Division-II, with athletes that have been on national teams and even Olympic teams,” Salerno said. “Having been to the meet gives people a lot more confidence — and that they don’t just belong there, but they deserve to win.”
Readers can contact Liam Rose at [email protected].
