The biggest storyline coming out of the meet was senior Jacqueline “Boo” Rose’s record breaking weekend. The women’s sprint captain won her heat in the 400m on Saturday to qualify her in lane six for the final the following day. She was ranked second going into finals with a time of 55.6s, chasing a 55.4s mark recorded by Cal State Fullerton’s Katie Wilson. Rose not only beat Wilson in the final with a time of 53.3s, but she also broke the previous UCSD school record of 54.9s set by Olympian Christine Merrill in 2008.
Rose’s time broke the previous record by over a second, making her the fastest female 400m runner in DII and fourth in the entire collegiate realm. She also became the second Triton in a row, following 2011 graduate Kelly Fogarty’s win last year, to be awarded the coveted Cal-Nevada Track Athlete of the Year. The award marks the seventh all-time award given out to an athlete mentored by UCSD sprint coach Mick Gieskes.
“It was really hard,” Rose said. “I was just so anxious and nervous that I reached another level. I laughed at myself as I was getting into my blocks because I was so nervous, I just decided then, ‘ok lets do this.’”
When asked if she thought there was more in the tank, Rose said there’s still room for improvement.
“I really think there is because for the last 15 meters I was looking for the clock to see how fast I was going,” Rose said. “That made me lose a bit off my stride and probably meant the difference between a 53 [second time] and a high 52 [second time].”
Sophomore hurdler Lauren Irish also posted a standout performance, finishing sixth in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:02.52, just 0.02 seconds off of a NCAA National qualifier.
The women’s 4 x 400m race was the second fastest ever run by a UCSD team at 3:43.89. Freshman Sabrina Pimentel stepped up after the usual first leg, senior Caitlin Meagher, contracted an asthma attack and could not race. Pimentel ran a solid 57 second split followed by Irish, who split a 56 second time, and senior Deyna Roberson, who also split a 56 second mark before handing off to Rose. Rose got the baton in third place, 50 meters behind Irvine’s Ericka Nowell. Rose fought hard, making up all of the ground between the two runners with a blazing 53.1s second split to barely fall short of second place. For reference, the Olympic qualifying time for a 400m run is 52.35 seconds.
Junior javelin thrower Jessica Miklaski threw well to finish in third place in her event, popping off a 137’6” mark to uphold her spot as the best javelin thrower in the CCAA conference.
The women finished 11th overall in a field of twenty teams, and the men finished 8th in a field of 19 teams.
Leading the men’s side were seniors Ka Wai Ng and Nicholas Howe. Ng finished third in the triple jump after scratching several of his best marks, ending with a 49’2.5” hop skip and a jump well short of his personal best.
Howe’s throw of 214’3” was also well short of his personal best, which opened the door for Cal State Long Beach senior Benjamin Woodruff to take the competition with a throw of 235’10”.
Other big marks on the men’s side came from Zachary Nagengast in the discus, who finished in sixth with a hurl of 156’6”.
Senior long jumper Jeff Head finished sixth as well, jumping 23’3”.
The throws squad on the men’s side is especially strong going into their next meet, with an intense sibling rivalry brewing. Senior Kiley Libuit threw 199’11” at Cal-Nevada to set a new personal best. However, his mark failed to beat that of his older brother Brad, who graduated in 2006 with the school record at 200’. The younger Libuit now heads to Arizona with a chip on his shoulder much like the one on the shoulder of freshman Nash Howe. The younger Howe is looking to break out from behind his brother, the current school record holder at 231’6”.
The Tritons now split up between Arizona State’s Sun Angel Invite and the Cal State San Marcos Mangrum Invite.
Seven men and seven women will head out Friday for Arizona with head coach Tony Salerno to practice for the upcoming NCAA National Meet in May.
