Friday’s competition at the Big West Track & Field Championships had sun, wind and plenty of fast times as the Cal State Northridge men and women hold the lead after the third day of the conference meet. The Championships will conclude tomorrow with the field events set to begin at noon and the track finals set to commence at 3:30 p.m., at Matador Track on the campus of Cal State Northridge.

The CSUN men are in the lead with 69 points, seven ahead of Long Beach State who collected 62 points following Friday’s action. UC Santa Barbara claimed third with 37.5 points, while UC Irvine wrapped up the day in fourth place with 33 tallies. Fifth place belongs to Cal Poly with 26.5 points, with UC Davis’ 21 points putting it in sixth. Cal State Fullerton (15) and UC Riverside (9) completed the scoring on the men’s side.

The women’s scoreboard begins with the Matadors in first place with 78 points, followed by Cal Poly with 64 tallies and Long Beach State with 32.5 points for third place. Cal State Fullerton wrapped up the day in fourth with 30.5 points, while UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara finished with 23 and 17 points, respectively. UC Irvine (15) and UC Davis (13) rounded out the women’s standings.

The day’s action began with field events starting with the men’s hammer in CSUN’s North Campus Stadium. Long Beach State’s Robert Jennings gave the 49ers the initial 10 points with his first place toss of 58.07 meters. Cal State Northridge claimed the next two slots as Cody Pearce (58.04m) and Alex Butler (54.26m) combined to give the Matadors 13 points.

On the women’s end of the hammer, it was a dominating effort by CSUN as the Matador contingent collected 28 points. Raquel Sola (57.79m), Tatiana Crochet (57.17m) and Morgan Bogard (55.49m) went 1-2-3 in the event for Cal State Northridge, while Jessica Beach (52.04m) wrapped up the scoring for the Matadors.

The women’s long jump was next and Cal Poly’s Sharon Day added another individual crown to her 2008 haul with a first place finish in the event. The heptathlon champion put forth an effort of 5.98 meters, edging out the effort of 5.97 meters that second place Shelese Ruffin of Cal State Northridge put forth.

The Matadors claimed another individual title in the next field event as Krystal Quinn took home the crown in the women’s pole vault with a mark of 3.85 meters. Her NCAA Regional qualifying effort was .15 meters better than second place Jenna Homes (3.70m) of Cal Poly.

In the men’s high jump, Cal State Fullerton picked up the top amount of points as Jonathan Golden of Cal State Fullerton cleared the bar at 2.10 meters, an NCAA Regional qualifying time. Second place was a tie as Jah Bennett of UC Davis and Elvin Tabah of UC Riverside each picked up seven points for their team with efforts of 2.05 meters. 

The men’s javelin also had a familiar winner as the 2008 decathlon champion Chris Richardson added the javelin crown to his 2008 Championship haul. He posted an incredible mark of 66.21 meters for first place, nearly four meters better than teammate Tyson Gray’s second place showing of 62.07 meters.

In the women’s end of the javelin competition, Alex Shaw of Long Beach State won her second consecutive title with a mark of 48.68 meters, an NCAA Regional qualifying mark.

The final field event of the day saw Cal State Northridge sweep another event as Reindell Cole (7.67m), DaShalle Andrews (7.42m) and Thomas Ross (7.27m) went 1-2-3 in the men’s long jump. Andrews is the defending NCAA Outdoor Champion, while Cole won the NCAA Indoor Crown in March. 

The only scored track events of the day were the steeplechase and the 10,000 meter run. In the steeple, UC Santa Barbara’s Mike Powers won the men’s end of the race with an effort of 9:05.08, while the women’s competition was won by Carolyn Ellis of Cal State Fullerton with a time of 10:37.21, nearly seven seconds better than second place.