This past weekend, the UCSD track and field team divided a few of the individuals into separate competitions.
Beach Invitational
Four of the team’s long-distance runners competed at the Beach Invitational, hosted by Long Beach State. The invitational provided diverse competition, with a mixture of Division-I and Division-II universities.
On the men’s side, the Tritons secured a couple of top-five finishes as senior distance runner Scott Acton (31:31.06), junior distance runner Brendan Gee (31:40.65) and senior distance runner Eddie Carrillo (32:51.57) took part in the 10,000-meter event, finishing fourth, fifth and 13th out of a field of 25 runners.
Sophomore distance runner Skylar Thiel, as the sole competitor for the UCSD women that day, ran 39:28.62 in the 10,000-meter event.
Mt. SAC Relays
Senior distance runner Paige Hughes was UCSD’s sole runner at the Mt. SAC Relays. The meet was held at Cerritos College in Falcon Stadium.
Hughes continued her stellar season on the 10K and finished in 35:27.07, bettering her provisional mark and setting a new personal record. She now owns the second fastest time on UCSD’s all-time list behind Emily McGregor’s school record of 35:26.00, set in 2008.
Bryan Clay Invitational
Azusa Pacific University hosted the Bryan Clay Invitational on Thursday and Friday. The Tritons had strong showings the first and second days, grabbing a few seasonal bests and provisional qualifiers.
Sophomore distance runner Merin Arft was the first Triton to make a splash, when she got a provisional qualifier on the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase. Her time of 11:02.58 is a personal best and makes her the second-fastest runner in school history, behind Anneke Kakebeen’s 11:01.73 from a year ago.
In the men’s 3000-meter steeplechase, sophomore distance runner Garrett Lepine had his best time of the season when he finished fourth in the second heat in 9:33.01.
The day continued to look good for the Tritons, when senior distance runner Tareq Alwafai also got a season best to finish ninth in the second heat of the 5000 in 14:43.71. Also in the 5000, sophomore Garrett Boulais was third in the sixth heat in 15:33.84.
On Friday, UCSD’s high jump highlighted the Tritons’ performance. Another Triton grabbed a provisional qualifier when senior jumper Sean Cook had a personal-best clearance of 6’8.75”, tying for fourth. For the women, both senior jumper and thrower Devon Brook and junior jumper and thrower Savanna Forry cleared 5’5”, but Brook finished in sixth and Forry took 11th based on the number of jumps.
In the long jump, freshman jumper Natalie Caraway won her flight and finished 11th overall with a distance of 37’11.25”.
In the 4×400 relay, the women’s team of junior sprinter Jackie Chalmers, sophomore hurdler Meghan Fletcher, junior sprinter Marisa Padilla and redshirt senior sprinter and thrower Ellexi Snover broke the mark for a provisional qualifier as they had a seasonal best of 3:48.01, good for fourth place. The men’s took fifth, as sophomore sprinter Isaiah King, junior sprinter and jumper Khalil Flemister, sophomore sprinter Paul Doan and junior sprinter Jared Senese ran a 3:17.36.
Two Tritons ran the 110m hurdles, with freshman hurdler Nicholas Rack (14.97) and junior decathlon runner Dan Golubovic (15.02) finishing eighth and ninth respectively.
Finally, in the 400m hurdles, Fletcher hit a personal-best mark of 1:03.20.
UCSD will host the last meet of the season as the two-day Triton Invitational is set for April 22–23. The Tritons will be looking to perform extremely well as they get ready to compete in the conference and national championships in the following weeks.
