Several Tritons improve provisional qualifiers at Aztec Invitational.
UCSD competed at the Aztec Invitational at SDSU’s Sports Deck this past Friday and Saturday, a meet highlighted by a record-breaking decathlon for redshirt junior Dan Golubovic and a few other meet wins and improvements on provisional qualifiers.
Day One
The Tritons’ meet opened with a bang on Friday when Golubovic broke a 23-year-old school record en route to 7139 in his first decathlon of the season; the record previously belonged to Matt Inskeep who had 7014 in 1993. This performance was an automatic qualifier for the NCAAs, where Golubovic also grabbed a provisional qualifier in the pole vault when he matched a 19-year-old school record and cleared 16’6.75” for 926 points. He won four events on top of the pole vault alongside the shot put (41’11.5”), the 110 hurdles (14.97), the discus (139’9”) and the javelin (192’6”), and tied for first in the high jump (5’11.25”). Also to be noted, Golubovic’s mark in the the javelin was a personal best as well as the sixth best in UCSD history.
UCSD had several other top performances. Sophomore sprinter Paul Doan took first in the open 100 meter race with a time of 10.79. Another winner of the day was junior sprinter Jared Senese, who placed first in the 400, with a time of 49.56. Graduate transfer runner Chloe Gustafson won her heat and finished second overall in the 1500 meter race with a time of 4:39.61. Senior Paige Hughes narrowly missed the podium, finishing third of her heat and fourth overall in a time of 4:40.51. In the men’s race, junior Terrence Luevano finished third with a time of 3:55.09 while sophomore Nick Famolaro (4:00.24) and senior Tareq Alwafai (4:00.70) had top-10 finishes, in sixth and eighth, respectively. The men’s 4×400 grabbed another podium finish for the Tritons, when sophomores Isaiah King, Brett Molster, Kenny Jones and freshman Nicholas Rack ran a 3:22.58, which was good for second.
Day Two
On day two of the Aztec Invitational, a couple of Tritons seized the day and improved on their provisional qualifiers for the NCAA. Junior Savanna Forry was one of them; in the high jump invitational she hit a mark of 5’7.25” and rose to fourth place.
Redshirt senior Ellexi Snover was the second Triton to improve her qualifier, as she finished in eighth place of the javelin invitational with a throw of 139’. Meanwhile, senior Haley Libuit finished 10th with a best throw of 133’11”.
On the men’s side, redshirt senior Anthony Capitulo continued to build on his excellent start to the season, taking third with a throw of 203’5”. His throw was over the provisional qualifier mark, but cake for Capitulo, who had already hit 209’6” earlier in the season. Senior Travis Vandegriff, however, was just short of the cut for the provisional mark set at 191’5” with a throw of 190’10”, good for ninth.
In spite of some tougher competition, the Tritons still managed to score a few other top-10 finishes on the day; junior Markus Woods was sixth in the 400 hurdles invitational with a time of 55.05, while on the women’s team sophomore Meghan Fletcher took ninth with a time of 1:03.91. After winning the open 100, Doan finished seventh in the invitational 100, running a 10.65 and tying his personal best while Jones finished tenth overall in the invitational 400, winning his heat in 50.60.
UCSD will host the California Collegiate Invitational, formerly known as the Cal-Nevada Championships, next on Saturday, April 2.
