TRACK & FIELD — There doesn’t seem to be a limit on how fast sprinter Kelly Fogarty can go. The senior sprinter wowed again last weekend at the Cal/Nevada Championships, once more breaking her own school records in the 100- and 200-meter dash and beating out top competition.
“At this point, I don’t think we’re going to be surprised by anything Kelly does,” men’s head coach Tony Salerno said. “She really dominated a field of pretty talented athletes.”
Fogarty ran 11.52 in the prelims of 100-meter dash and 23.56 in the 200-meter dash prelims, both on Saturday. Both times are UCSD records, and Fogarty came back on Sunday to win both events with times of 11.65 and 23.63 in the finals. To put her times in perspective, her new record time would have made her sixth nationally last year — at the NCAA Division I Championships.
“The level she’s running at now is something pretty spectacular,” Salerno said. “For her to be as dominant as she was really impressive.”
Fogarty was unanimously chosen as female track athlete of the meet by the coaches, and is only the second Triton to earn that honor in the 18-year history of the event.
Fogarty wasn’t the only UCSD athlete to make waves at the high-profile meet, which featured many of the Division-I schools in California and Nevada. Junior Nick Howe threw the second-best mark of his career in the javelin throw, coming in at 222’2”. Despite this, the defending Division-II champion won the event by just four centimeters over Cal Poly Pomona’s Lance Walkington.
UCSD saw a lot of success in the field events throughout the meet. Danielle Thu placed second in the hammer throw with a mark of 180’8”, losing only to UC Davis’s Chid Onyewuenyi. Theresa Richards placed sixth in the javelin throw with a toss of 131’1”.
Caitlin Meagher took fifth in the 400 hurdles with a time of 62.20, while Stephanie LeFever was eighth in the 100 hurdles, coming in at 14.53. LeFever was also fifth in the long jump with a mark of 19”0.5’.
Junior Dustin Harris ran 1:52.42 in the 800 meters, which was good enough for a fifth-place finish and NCAA provisional qualifier.
“That’s a huge breakthrough for Dustin,” Salerno said. “We’re really excited to see him keep running faster.”
Ka Wai Ng also earned a provisional qualifier, as he finished sixth in the triple jump with a mark of 47’7.25”.
Defending NCAA D-I Indoor Track & Field champions San Diego State took the meet on the women’s side with 132 points. Long Beach State was top on the men’s side for the second straight year, scoring 155 points. UCSD scored 56 points and 35 points, respectively.
Salerno said he was happy with the way the team performed against the tough competition.
“It was pretty exceptional,” Salerno said. “To have our people competing at that level, head-to-head, and be successful, really is an inspiring thing.”
The Tritons return to action this weekend at the Mangrum Invitational, a smaller meet hosted by Cal State San Marcos.
Readers can contact Liam Rose at [email protected]
