Decathlon – Day One Results |
Heptathlon – Day One Results
TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
UC Santa Barbara seniors Tyler Nelson and Hope Bender are out in front after day one of the multi-events competition that kicked off the 2019 Big West Track and Field Championships at Pauley Track Facility on Friday.
The Gauchos are hosting the championship for the first time since 1983.
Nelson leads the decathlon through five events with a top score of 3,943 points. The 2016 Big West decathlon champion seeks a second stop atop the medal stand, and he is ahead of defending champion Kyle Clancy of UC Davis. Clancy finished second with 3,819 points. Long Beach State senior John Broadhead is third with 3,753 points, followed by UC Santa Barbara sophomore Sam Pica in fourth (3,746) and UC Davis senior Drake Foote (3,714) in fifth.
Nelson won two events on Friday as he finished first in the 100 meters (11.06) and shot put (48-02.75). He also placed second in the 400 meters (48.66) and fifth in the long jump (22-08.50).
Clancy also notched a pair of event victories as he remained within striking distance of Nelson going into the final five events on Saturday. After opening the competition with a second place finish in the 100 meters (11.13), Clancy posted a mark of 23-05.50 in the long jump to win the event. He later cleared a season-best 6-10.75 in the high jump to place first and pick up 896 points.
Clocking 48.47 seconds in the 400 meters, Pica also picked up a win to pull within seven points of Broadhead for third place. Broadhead was solid across the board, finishing no worse than seventh place in any event and placing third overall in the 400 meters (50.10).
The conference leader entering the championship meet, Long Beach State’s Herman Day had three second place finishes – long jump, shot put and high jump – but fell to eighth place overall with 3,459 points after coming in last among the 14 competitors in the 400 (1:03.43).
Bender is in first place after collecting 3,518 points through the initial four events of the heptathlon. The reigning conference champion, Bender tallied three first place finishes to build a lead on Erinn Beattie, who finished in second with 3,283 points. Calli Ann Abbott of Hawai‘i took third place with 3,171 points, while Dilini Amarasekara of UC Riverside and Caice Lanovaz of Cal Poly are fourth and fifth with 3,130 and 3,019 points, respectively.
Bender began the afternoon with a 13.48 second performance in the 100 meter hurdles – the second-fastest clocking of her career. After a runner-up finish in the high jump (5-05), Bender proceeded to win the shot put (40-11) and 200 meter dash (24.03).
Beattie held the lead in the competition after the second event when she won the high jump with a top mark of 5-09.75. But Bender retook first place after Beattie came in fifth in both the shot put (35-04.75) and 200 (25.79).
Finishing third or better in three of the four events, Abbott climbed into third place. She posted a time of 14.12 seconds to finish second in the 100 meter hurdles.
Day two of the decathlon begins at noon on Saturday with the 110 meter hurdles. The competition concludes with the discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 meters in succession. Heptathlon action starts at 12:30 pm with the long jump, followed by the javelin and 800 meters.