Barbara Nwaba and David Hoff are the top competitors for the Gauchos after day one of the Sam Adams Combined Events. The two-day decathlon/heptathlon competition concludes tomorrow, and Nwaba and Hoff are both in contention to win their respective events.
Nwaba currently has 3035 points, which is on pace to break the UCSB record and leaves her in a position to challenge the 5000-point barrier. Her best performance on the day was in the high jump, where she cleared 5-6.50 (1.69m) to set a new lifetime best.
The other Gaucho competitors also fared well in the high jump, with Amanda Lee, Christina Nowak and Maureen Ajoku all clearing 5-5 (1.65m). Additionally, Tayler Williams cleared 5-3.75 (1.62m) in her first-ever high jump competition.
In the overall scoring, Lee is in second with 2688 points, Williams is third with 2641, Nowak is fourth with 2478 and Ajoku is fifth with 2310.
In the decathlon, David Hoff is currently in second place with 3429 points. His top performance of the day was in the high jump as well, where he cleared 6-8.25 (2.04m), just a centimeter shy of his lifetime best.
Derek Masterson is in third with 3369 points, and he has his big event–the pole vault–coming up tomorrow. Freshman Mike Powers is fifth at 3179, and all seven Gaucho men scored over 3000 in day one. The leader of the competition is Bryan Belue of Humboldt State with a score of 3471.
Gaucho sprints coach Josh Priester was pleased with what he saw this afternoon.
“Both the men and the women transitioned very well in their first test with the multi-events,” observed Priester. “This is a great group to build with, and we’re looking forward to some good scores tomorrow and some very exciting times in the future.”
The Sam Adams Combined Events conclude tomorrow at Pauley Track.
