The Spring Track and Field season has taken off as seven Big West teams competed this last week in Invitational meets, where four athletes performed at their best to receive weekly honors.
For the second week in a row Irvine’s Jacob Yowell (Men’s Track) was named alongside UC Davis’ Sarah Sumpter (Women’s Track) as Big West Track Athletes of the Week, and UC Riverside dominated the field selection with Ryan Swafford (Men’s Field) and Nikki James (Women’s Field) named Big West Field Athletes of the Week.
Senior Yowell grabs his second-consecutive recognition for his outstanding performance competing in the UC Santa Barbara Duel Meet last week. The Torrance native won the 110-meter hurdles for the second week in a row with a time of 14.12, improving his No. 5 mark in the Anteater record book.
The senior also ran a 47.3 split in the 4x400 relay to finish second among the 27 entries with a 3:16.02 mark.
From Cloverdale, Calif, Sumpter showed her home pride in the Aggie Open last week finishing first in the 5,000 meter with a time of 16:33.91. The junior jumped from No. 9 to No. 3 in the program’s career leaders lists, beating her previous 16:52.65 mark set in 2010.
Sumpter led a 1-2-3 Aggie finish in the season-opening event winning her race by 28.08 seconds, the closest coming in at 17:01.99.
UC Riverside dominated at the Ben Brown Invitational in the field events, bringing home both the men’s and women’s accolades for the week. Swafford from Murrietta, Calif. jumped a school-record 51’ 9.00” in the triple jump last week, winning the event in a UC Riverside verses UC Santa Barbara duel. The Highlander junior now leads the Big West in the long jump, his nearest competitor more than four feet behind.
Teammate James went home with two wins last week for her performance in the hammer and discus competitions. The Riverside native threw her way to the top posting a 179’ 0” mark in the hammer for first place and a 159’ 0” toss in discus for the top mark. The senior is now number one in both events in Big West standings.
Others nominated: Bryan Adams (UC Riverside), Sean Johnson (UC Santa Barbara), Eric Surprenant (Cal Poly) (Men’s Track)
Raquel Hefflin (UC RIverside), Amber Middleton (UC Irvine), Barbara Nwaba (UC Santa Barbara, Vanessa Hancock (Cal Poly) Rosa Del Toro (Long Beach State) (Women’s Track)
Brock Bennett (UC Davis), Mike Larocca (UC Santa Barbara), John Prader (Cal Poly) (Men’s Field)
Lauren Radke (UC Davis), Kara Kalmar (Cal State Fullerton), Irene Kujore (UC Santa Barbara), Whitney Sisler (Cal Poly) (Women’s Field)