IRVINE — Scott Anderson was the winner of the shot put on the first day of the Big West Track & Field Championships, which are being held May 15-16 at UC Irvine’s Anteater Stadium.
Anderson picked up his first career conference title with a new personal best of 59-4.25 (18.09m), which came on his final attempt. He improves his UCSB shot put record and earned 10 team points for the Gauchos. Anderson will also compete in the discus tomorrow afternoon.
Hector Serrano and Alex Umstead picked up points in the shot put as well, with Serrano placing fifth at 52-8 (16.05m) for four points and Umstead placing seventh at 51-6.25 (15.70m) for two points.
The women also had a successful day in the throwing events, as Irene Kujore threw the Regional mark in the discus for the second time this season. Her toss of 157-9 (48.08m) was good for second in the meet and eight team points for the Gauchos. Kujore earns All-Conference distinction with her performance.
Friday’s running events opened with the steeplechase finals, and Katie Voigtlander placed fourth with a time of 10:48.29, earning five team points. Ari Selix also picked up a point in the steeplechase by finishing eighth at 11:13.55.
Voigtlander ran a tough double by entering the 10,000m later in the meet, and she scored in that race as well. Her time of 36:40.61 was good for sixth place and four points, and also places her 10th on the UCSB all-time list for the 10k.
Waleed Totari scored six points in the men’s 10,000m by placing third at 30:36.38, which earns him All-Conference honors. Totari was able to break away from a group of seven runners who were bunched together with less than 800 meters to go.
Most of Friday’s schedule consisted of qualifying heats for the remaining running events. A large number of Gauchos were able to qualify and will participate in the final heats, which will be contested tomorrow.
Jason Newland qualified in the 100m and 200m dashes with some of the fastest times of the day. He won his section in the 100m with a time of 10.75, which was the second-fastest preliminary time. He qualified for the 200m dash with the fastest preliminary time of the day – a 21.58.
Scott Smith and Ryan Martin both qualified comfortably in their middle distance races. Smith was the winner of his section in the 1500m with a time of 3:56.23. Martin took second in his section of the 800m with a time of 1:52.63. Also in the middle distances, Sarah Vitug qualified for the women’s 800m finals with a time of 2:15.01.
Barbara Nwaba will compete in the finals of both hurdles races. She took third in her qualifying heat in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.48, which gives her the sixth-best time heading into the finals. She ran the fourth-fastest time in the 400m hurdles with a 62.28.
Max Bellissimo qualified in the 400m dash by running 48.41, his best time of the season thus far. Drew Johnston qualified in the 400m hurdles with a preliminary time of 54.31.
The Big West Championships resume tomorrow with field events beginning at 11:00 a.m. and track events beginning at 4:00 p.m. All of tomorrow’s events are finals, and the team championships will be awarded at the conclusion of the meet.
