Westmont Track and Field hosted UC Santa Barbara and Pepperdine in a three-way meet on Saturday. UC Santa Barbara won both the men’s and women’s competition, but the focus was more on individual performances than on team scores.
On the women’s side, Kate Stuart broke five minutes (4:59.67) in the mile, rewriting the school record for the second time in as many weeks.
“Kate is in a groove and feeling good running,” said Westmont head coach Russell Smelley. “She told me today that she still doesn’t feel like she is running hard. That is encouraging about the promise she has for indoor nationals.”
“We had a school record in the women’s 400 meters with a 55.93 by Elysia Hodges, a freshman from San Marcos High School,” continued Smelley. “She will run that event at indoor nationals and we will substitute someone else in for the 400 meters in the distance medley relay.”
Hodges beat the automatic qualification mark by more than two seconds to earn the trip to Geneva, Ohio where the NAIA National Indoor Track and Field Championships will be held March 1-3. In addition to winning the 400 meter race, Hodges also won the 200 meter race in a time of 25.75
Winning the 100 meter race in a time of 12.59 was junior Amanda Chevalier.
“Amanda did a great job of competing,” said Smelley. “She was just cleared medically the night before to compete.”
Taylor Frantom won the women’s pole vault for Westmont, clearing a height of 3.35 meters (10-11.75).
On the men’s side, Shane Rowan, another freshman from San Marcos High School, won the triple jump with a distance of 14.32 meters (46-11). The mark meets the automatic qualification distance for NAIA Nationals. However, Rowan qualified earlier this season with a mark of 14.71 meters (48-3.25).
“Evan Bradford had a fine mile race, a personal best and an automatic qualifying time for nationals,” said Smelley of Bradford’s time of 4:16.80. “His race, along with Matt Shiney running a personal best in the 800 (1:53.73) and Garrison Gourdeau running well (1:57:30), cemented them running the distance medley at nationals.
“Christian Hatchett set the freshman record again at 48.88 in the men’s 400 meters,” continued the coach. “Ben McCollum and Kyle Kemper, our two young men who are learning the decathlon, both had personal best – Ben in the high jump and Kyle in the pole vault. Daniel Mathis had a two-meter personal best in the hammer, which is a great thing for him.”
