After Mother Nature did her best to delay the start of the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the Big West competitors braved a two-hour delay to complete the first day of competition of the national meet.
Severe thunderstorms rolled through the Midwest during the day, wreaking havoc in the morning around the Des Moines area. Once the storms passed through, warm and windy weather set the stage for the penultimate meet of the collegiate track season.
In the men’s track side of things, Brent Gray of Long Beach State and Bradley Ike competed in the 100-meter dash. Both competitors were unable to advance to the next round of heats as their times were 20th and 21st, respectively.
The UC Santa Barbara duo of Mike Powers and Chris Ashley competed in the steeplechase against the nation’s best, but neither could post a time that would’ve moved them onto the next round of competition. Powers finished 18th with a time of 9:04.66, while Ashley was 25th after crossing the finish in 14:52.34.
In the 4x100 relay, Long Beach State was the lone conference relay contingent, but the quartet of Alex Goldberg, Gray, Kelsay Caesar and Austin Fowler finished 14th overall in the first round of prelims after posting a time of 40.17.
The Big West also had representatives compete in the field event during the day one festivities. Jonathan Golden of Cal State Fullerton finished in a tie for 18th with a mark of 2.10 meters, but was unable to advance to the next round of competition in the event.
Reindell Cole of Cal State Northridge had a solid day one in the long jump as the true freshman posted the seventh-best mark of 7.81 meters to advance to the next round of flights. Teammate Derek Cooper also had a solid mark in his event, the discus, but Cooper’s effort of 51.18 meters was not enough to advance to the next round.
Rounding out the men’s events was the decathlon where two conference athletes finished the first day in the top 10. Long Beach State’s Chris Richardson stands seventh with 3,936 points, while Justin Johnson of Cal State Northridge is ninth with 3,915 tallies.
The women’s track events also had some solid times and marks during day one. Shelese Ruffin of Cal State Northridge ran in the 400 meter dash, but could not advance to the next round of competition after posting a time of 55.37.
UC Santa Barbara’s Danielle Domenichelli advanced to the next round of her event as the junior posted a time of 16:51.36 in the 5000-meter run. She finished 14th overall in a field of 27 runners.
In the field events, former national high jump champion Sharon Day of Cal Poly and Desirae Gonder of Cal State Northridge were among 16 competitors to advance to the next flight. The advancing athletes all cleared 1.77 on the bar.
In the final women’s field event, Long Beach State’s Katelyn Ciarelli competed in the discus. Ciarelli finished 18th with a toss of 48.20 meters, but could not advance to the next round.