FINAL RESULTS
TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
The Long Beach State men secured sole possession of a conference record and the Cal State Fullerton women joined the circle of champions to conclude the Big West Track and Field Championship at Pauley Track Saturday.
The Beach men won their record 11th Big West title with 169.5 points – the program's fifth in the last seven years – and ended a two-year run by Cal State Fullerton in the process. LBSU came into the meet tied with Fresno State for the most championships (10). Head Coach Andy Sythe, in his 30th year overseeing the program, has been at the helm in eight of the 11 title-clinching seasons.
The Titans made a valiant effort to win their third straight crown, finishing second with 151 points in large part due to several event victories in the sprints.
UC Davis came in third with 117.5 points, Cal Poly was fourth with 97.5 points and host UC Santa Barbara ended up fifth at 92.5. CSUN (85), UC Riverside (64) and UC Irvine (40) rounded out the standings.
On the women's side, Cal State Fullerton became the fifth current Big West member to ascend to the top, joining CSUN, Long Beach State, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara. In his 31st year running the program, head coach John Elders helped guide the Titans to the top spot after their previous best finish was fourth. His success comes on the heels of the program's first two men's championships in 2017 and 2018.
The Titans won with 129 points in a tight battle with runner-up UCSB (123) and third place Cal Poly (118). UC Davis also topped the 100-point barrier, finishing fourth with 108.5 and CSUN was fifth with 101.
It was the first time since 2004 that five women's squads accumulated at least 100 points.
Rounding out the women's standings was LBSU (94 points), UCI (64), UCR (41) and Hawai‘i (37).
A number of impressive performance, including a meet record, took place on Saturday at UCSB, which was hosting its first championship meet since 1983.
FIELD EVENTS
• Barbara Coward of UC Irvine captrued the women’s hammer title with a throw of 195-06. She doubled in the hammer and discus, the first to do so at the conference meet since CSUN’s Monique Griffiths in 2015.
• UC Davis sophomore Jered Espanola topped the field in the men’s pole vault, clearing 16-09.25. He is the second straight Aggie to win the event (Marc Toney - 2018).
• UC Riverside freshman John Ober III became the first in school history to win the men’s javelin. He had a top mark of 202-03.
• Junior Abibat Rahman-Davies of Cal Poly took home the women’s triple jump title for the second straight year. She won with a career-best mark of 41-08.75.
• Long Beach State senior Vincent Calhoun broke through with his first men’s long jump title – and became the first Beach individual since John Temidara in 2006 to take gold. He posted a top mark of 6-10.75.
• CSUN senior Brandy Williams became the fifth individual in Big West history to win the women's shot put title at least twice. She won with a throw of 54-03.75, a personal-best and the No. 2 mark in school history.
• Junior Charlie Vernoy joined a long list of Long Beach State men's discus performers on the podium. He became the 10th individual in school history to win, as his first attempt of 177-04 clinched the gold.
• CSUN freshman Ahmed Mohamed notched first place in the men's triple jump with a leap of 50-08.00.
TRACK EVENTS
• The Cal State Fullerton men’s 4x100 relay team won the title for the 4th straight year. They finished in 40.55 seconds.
• The UC Davis women’s 4x100 relay team took home the title in 45.21. The Aggie women won for the second time in three years. The Long Beach State women finished third, but were disqualified on an illegal handoff going into the last leg. Hawai‘i moved up into the third spot.
• Cal Poly senior Alex Merder earned the men’s 1,500 meters title with a time of 3:52.08. He edged UC Riverside junior Heinrich Van Niekerk (3:52.54) and UC Santa Barbara sophomore Alex Barr (3:52.96) by less than a second. He was the second Mustang in three years to win the event.
• Cal State Fullerton junior Samantha Huerta captured gold in the women’s 1,500 meters in 4:30.66. She became the first Titan to win the event in the 36th running of the Big West meet.
• CSUN freshman Bashiru Abdullahi ran a career-best 13.80 to win the men’s 110 meter hurdles, No. 2 mark in school history. The 13.80 time is currently tied for No. 19 in the country.
• CSUN senior Sydney Mosley blazed to a school record 13.19 in the women’s 100 meter hurdles final. She posted the second-fastest winning time in Big West meet history, just off the record of 13.11 set by Idaho’s Angela Whyte in 2003.
• Cal State Fullerton junior Marcel Espinoza broke his own school record in the men’s 400 meters, lowering the time to 45.87. He owns the distinction of being just the second winner in conference meet history to run a sub-46 second race. Boise State’s Corey Nelson (45.36) was the other in 1999.
• Freshmen went 1-2-3 in the women’s 400 meters. Kirsten Carter was the winner from UC Davis with a time of 53.85, and the first Aggie since Cekarri Nixon in 2014 to win the event. CSUN’s Lena Kandissounon finished second in 53.87 and UC Irvine’s Zani Meaders was third in 55.00.
• Cal State Fullerton senior Mason Rolllins won the men's 100 meters in a personal-best time of 10.49 seconds. He was the third Titan in the last four years to finish first in the event.
• Courtne' Davis of Long Beach State bookended her outstanding career with gold in the women's 100 meters. The senior ran the race in 11.47 seconds, pairing that win with her first place showing as a freshman in 2016.
• After a lengthy weather delay caused by lightning strikes in the surrounding area, Cal Poly freshman Bobby Poynter shook off any ill effects from the delay to win the men's 800 meters in 1:51.70. He is the first Mustang since David Ulibarri in 2000 to win that race.
• CSF's Huerta came back from her win in the 1,500 to capture her second straight title in the women's 800 meters. Ranked No. 14 in the country with a school record time of 2:04.33, Huerta flirted with improvement on that mark as she won in a comfortable 2:04.81. She became the first Titan to double in the 800 and 1,500 meters.
• UC Riverside sophomore Quinn Williams joined Michael Koger (2013, 2015) as the only two Highlanders to win the men's 400 meter hurdles. Williams posted a career-best 51.34, the No. 2 mark in school history.
• The most outstanding performance of the day came courtesy of UCSB senior Hope Bender. With heptathlon and long jump titles already belonging to her, Bender proceeded to obliterate a long standing Big West record in the women's 400 meter hurdles. She finished the race in 56.64 seconds, taking down the conference meet record previously held by Cal Poly's LeBren Martin (57.69, 2003). Bender's school record mark also moved her to No. 3 on this season's NCAA leaderboard behind only Kansas State's Ranae McKenzie (56.11) and USC's Anna Cockrell (56.44).
• In the men's 200 meters, CSF's Rollins secured his third event victory of the day to accompany wins in the 4x100 relay and 100. Rollins ran a career-best 20.92 against a slight headwind (-0.5) to tie the school record set by Thaddeus Smith in 2016. The Titans finished 1-2-3 in the event as Marcel Espinoza was second in 21.13 and Rasaun House third in 21.25.
• LBSU's Davis returned to the track in the women's 200 meters to complete the double, winning the event in 23.45 seconds. It marked the second time in her career (2016) that she won gold in both the 100 and 200 meters. It was also her third career win in the 200 at the conference meet, joining Ashley Marshall of UC Davis (2013-15) as the only two individuals in Big West history with three victories in the event.
• UC Davis senior Jordy Ceja claimed the men's 5,000 meter title in 14:36.45, ending Cal Poly's six-year championship reign in that event.
• Cal Poly senior Miranda Daschian won her second long distance event in less than 24 hours. After Friday's victory in the 10,000 meters, Daschian took gold in the women's 5,000 meters in a time of 17:10.63, edging her UCSB rival Katie Camarena by just 0.83 seconds in a dramatic finish.
• The meet concluded with the men's and women's 4x400 meter relays. Cal State Fullerton won the men's race in 3:08.48, the fastest performance by a meet champion since Long Beach State (3:07.91) in 1999. The Titans recorded their first gold in the 4x400 since 2002. The CSUN women finished first in their race in 3:40.53, marking the fourth time in the last six years the Matadors took home gold in the event.
• For the second straight year, Kyle Clancy of UC Davis and Hope Bender of UC Santa Barbara earned Athlete of the Meet distinction. Clancy, a senior, contributed to the third place Aggie finish with 23 individual points, finishing second in the high jump, third in the decathlon, fourth in the 110 hurdles and fifth in the long jump. Bender, also a senior, collected a whopping 38 individual points with first place finishes in the heptathlon, 400 meter hurdles and long jump, as well as a second in the 100 meter hurdles.