IRVINE — Derek Masterson finished third in the decathlon with 7,295 points on Saturday’s portion of the Big West Combined Event Championships hosted by Anteater track at UC Irvine.
Masterson ran 15.61 in the 110 meter hurdles, threw 148’7″ in the discus, cleared 15’4.25″ in the pole vault, threw 174’5″ in the javelin and ran a new personal best of nearly 14 seconds in the 1,500 meters with his time of 4:50.17. His total score is 136 points better than his previous combined decathlon score at the Westmont Collegiate Classic in March. Masterson earned six points for the Gaucho’s to add to the team score at next weekend’s Big West Championship meet.
Codding earned three points for the Gauchos and finished sixth with a score of 6,300. Nicholas Armstrong of Long Beach State earned 7,409 points to win the decathlon.
Maureen Ajoku finished fourth to earn a combined score of 5,108 which improves her previous score by 233 points. She added five more points to the team score and currently sits second on the all-time heptathlon list.
Sherrina Lofton of Cal St. Northridge won the heptathlon with a total score of 5,371 points. Lofton won the heptathlon in 2009 and Barbara Nwaba won in 2010.
