NORTHRIDGE — Barbara Nwaba currently leads with Big West heptathlon championship after day one of the competition. She has 3420 points, ahead of Desirae Gonder from Cal State Northridge with 3329 and Anikia Jackson of UC Davis with 2986.
Nwaba’s highest scoring event on the day was the high jump, where she cleared a new lifetime best of 5’9.25″ (1.76m) for a score of 928. She moves into sole possession of fourth on the UCSB all-time high jump list.
Nwaba also set heptathlon personal bests in her other three events. She scored 924 in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.39, 680 in the shot put with a throw of 40’4″ (12.29m), and 888 in the 200m with a time of 24.99.
Other Gaucho scores from the heptathlon are Maureen Ajoku in sixth with 2807 points, Christina Nowak in ninth with 2771 points, Grace Esslinger in 10th with 2649 points, and Jessica Bragg in 12th with 2577 points. The heptathlon concludes tomorrow with the long jump, javelin, and 800m run.
In the decathlon, UCSB’s Mike Powers is currently in third place with a score of 3728. His highest scoring event was the 400m dash, where he ran a personal best of 48.74. He scored above 700 points in four out of five events.
Josh Codding is the other Gaucho still in contention to score in the decathlon. He is currently in 10th place with 3304 points. Mike Larocca dropped out of the competition after the shot put.
Conference Champions will be announced tomorrow when the decathlon and heptathlon conclude at Cal State Northridge.
