NORTHRIDGE — Three Gauchos captured conference titles on the first day of the Big West Championships, being hosted May 14-15 at Cal State Northridge.
The most noteworthy result for UCSB came in the women’s 10,000m, where Danielle Domenichelli won with a Conference Meet record time of 34:50.29. She was shoulder to shoulder with Lilyanna Morejon of Cal State Northridge for most of the race, but began to pull away with four laps to go. She won by nine seconds.
In the first event of the day, Julian deRubira won the steeplechase with a time of 8:52.57. He pulled away from Cal Poly’s Carl Dargitz on the final lap to win by nearly five seconds.
The other conference champion from day one was Michael Guerra, who took the win in the javelin with his best throw measuring 204’9″ (62.40m). He was more than 10 feet ahead of his nearest competitor.
Katie Voigtlander was runner-up in the women’s steeplechase, earning All-Conference honors. She was behind Carolyn Ellis of Cal State Fullerton on the final lap, and momentarily gained the lead after Ellis fell over the barrier heading into the final turn. Ellis was able to recover and pass Voigtlander on the home stretch.
There were three All-Conference performances in the throws. Alex Umstead took second in the hammer with his best throw measuring 185’0″ (56.38m), and Chris Hamilton took third with his best throw measuring 180’10” (55.13m). Irene Kujore was second in the women’s hammer with a mark of 170’9″ (55.05m).
Mitchell Haag cleared a personal best of 6’8.25″ (2.04m) in the high jump to earn an All-Conference finish at third place. He was ranked ahead of three other athletes who cleared the same bar, as Haag had fewer misses at earlier heights.
Tomorrow’s competition features finals in the remaining field events, and in the running events which held preliminaries on Friday. The day begins at noon with the women’s triple jump. The first event on the track Saturday is the women’s 4×100 relay at 3 p.m., and the final event is the men’s 4×400 relay at 5:55 p.m.
TEAM SCORES AFTER DAY ONE:
Women: Cal State Northridge – 79 ; UCSB – 65 ; UC Davis – 39 ; Cal State Fullerton – 31 ; Long Beach State – 27 ; Cal Poly – 16 ; UC Riverside – 14 ; UC Irvine – 2
Men: Cal State Northridge – 67 ; Cal Poly – 62 ; UCSB – 56.5 ; Long Beach State – 42 ; Cal State Fullerton – 21.5 ; UC Davis – 13 ; UC Riverside – 11 ; UC Irvine – 0
