IRVINE — This Saturday, the Gauchos made their way down south to UC Irvine for the All-Cal Challenge meet hosted by Anteater Stadium. Based on overall team scoring, UCSB came out on top with a team score of 193.5 to take the All-Call meet.
Field Events: The Gaucho’s had both men and women who won the shot put events with Josh Scherer’s first place throw of 47’11” and Jean Lightfoot’s throw of 45’8″. Lightfoot would also go on to place second in the discus with a toss of 150’3″ and second in the hammer throw with her best mark at 173’5″.
Julian Samson helped earn points for UCSB with his win in the discus by throwing 153’6″ and placing second in the shot put by throwing 46’11”. Samson also earned sixth in the hammer throw with a mark of 165’3″. Adam Shigem placed third in the hammer throw with a mark of 171’6″ while Alex Francis took fourth in the women’s shot put with a mark of 40’1.5″ and placed third in the hammer throw with a mark of 159’1″. In the high jump, Helena Montin and Maureen Ajoku both reached their highest mark at 5’3″.
Karlon Johnson won the triple jump with his mark of 46’5.25″. While Tayler Williams jumped 38’5″ to take second place. Taylor Duncan represented the Gauchos well in the pole vault with his second place mark of 15’5″. In men’s long jump, John Walsh placed fourth with a leap of 21’9″ and Chris Brooks came in fifth with a mark of 21’6.25″. On the women’s side, Maureen Ajoku took second overall by jumping 18’0.5″ and Tayler Williams placed seventh with a mark of 16’10.75″. In the javelin throw, Derek Masterson placed second with a throw of 189’7″ while Josh Codding took fifth with a mark of 127’4″ for the men. Grace Esslinger threw 137’3″ to place second and Jennifer Melton threw 114’0″ in the women’s javelin throw.
Track Events: Andrea Jacobs and Ari Selix took the top two spots in the 3000m steeplechase with Jacob’s winning time of 10:54.02 and Selix coming in at 11:08.60. Anthony Masci ran 9:35.92 for third place, Andrew Salinas ran 9:45.58 for fourth place and Andrew Pilavjian earned 5th with his time of 9:58.05 in the men’s 3000m steeplechase. The men 4x100m relay took first with Beidi Beer, Nate Harvey, Jacob Vowels and Evan Walker contributing to a time of 42.44. The women 4x100m relay team composed of Snita Ashford, Kelsey Bolden, Grace Esslinger, and Megan Vyenielo placed 3rd for a time of 47.70.
Cassie Brooker placed 3rd in the 1500m run with her time of 4:39.11, Callie Mulgannon earned 4th by running 4:40.49 and Sarah Vitug took 6th with a time of 4:41.92. Tyler Brady ran 3:55.07 in the men’s 1500m with Greg Dotson coming in 5th in 3:58.6 and Rusty Parker placing 7th in 3:59.13.
Sean Johnson won the men’s 110m hurdles with a winning time of 15.27. Grace Esslinger placed 7th for the women’s 100m hurdles in 14.82 and Jaimie McCormack took 9th with a time of 15.95. Esslinger also competed in the 200m dash and placed fourth with a time of 25.37. Maureen Ajoku ran 25.71 to place sixth overall in the 200m. Jacob Vowels ran 22.21 for third place and Nate Harvey followed in fourth with a time of 22.78. In the women’s 400m, Jessica Johnson ran 56.12 to win the event followed by Jennifer Carey in fourth place with a time of 58.13. Jordan Scott earned second place for the men’s 400m run with a time of 49.02 and Winton Nguyen came in sixth with a time of 50.49.
Snita Ashford earned second place with a time of 12.23 in the 100m dash and Megan Vyenielo placed 10th by running 12.92. Beidi Beer ran 10.90 and Jacob Vowels followed closely behind with a time of 10.93 to earn third and fourth place respectively in the men’s 100m.
The Gauchos won both the women’s and men’s 800m run with Justine Diaz running 2:11.75 for the women and Ryan Martin running 1:52.86 for the men. Cassie Brooker placed eighth with a time of 2:18.50 and Rusty Parker took fifth with a time of 1:56.11. Andre Pinon blazed across the finish line in 53.07 for a first place finish in the men’s 400m hurdles and Alvin Go finished 3rd with a time of 54.61. “I’m happy with my performance,” commented Pinon on his 400m hurdle win. “The plan is to make it to the first round of NCAA Nationals and just go off of that.” On the women’s side, Aislynn Mueller ran 63.61 and Amanda Rodriguez ran 64.49 for seventh place.
Big West Athlete of the Week Amanda Moreno won the women’s 3000m with a time of 9:34.87. Moreno broke UCSB’s school record in the 3000m which was over 20 years old. “It was a fun race, my goal going in was to break the school record and it was exciting to finally break it.” Moreno was able to improve on her previous 3k time at the Gaucho Round-Up by more than ten seconds and views this race as helping her get ready for the Stanford 5k and getting used to the pace she will be running at Nationals. Breanne Strenkowski came in second in the 3k with a time of 9:54.37 while Juan Paredes earned second place in the men’s 3000m with a time of 8:23.89 and Bhavik Kanzaria placed sixth coming in at 8:33.11.
The men’s and women’s 4x400m relay team both placed first with the women’s team composed of Jennifer Carey, Jessica Johnson, Amanda Rodriguez, Sheniece Vargas running 3:47.11 and the men’s team of Alvin Go, Jimmy Martin, Andre Pinon and Jordan Scott running 3:12.36.
Next up for the Gaucho’s is the USC Invitational March 18-19 in Los Angeles, Calif.
