IRVINE – Several of the University of California schools descended upon Anteater Stadium on Saturday for the All-UC Meet, the first Big West Conference meet of the 2012 outdoor season.
The Gauchos had an outstanding showing, beating UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UC Riverside on both the men’s and women’s side—the men’s team dominating the meet with a total of 224 points and the women capturing 185 total points.
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In the field events, senior Adam Shigem highlighted the men’s hammer throw with a second place finish with his farthest throw measuring 190-8 and demolishing his personal record by over 12 feet. Chris Hamilton and Josh Scherer who finished third and fourth, respectively also both threw personal bests. Hamilton’s best mark at 187-4 and Scherer’s best mark reaching 177-4. On the women’s side, Alex Francis finished in third with her mark of 152-9. Kathleen Guzman finished seventh, throwing 144-8 for a new personal record.
Derek Masterson had a great performance in the pole vault where he won the event with his clearance of 15-11, just a few inches shy of his personal record of 16-3. Taylor Duncan placed fifth overall with a height of 15-1. Andrew Curry, Zachary Logan and Mikael Powers followed closely behind, claiming spots sixth through eighth. For the women, it was freshman Cassandra Centofranchi who picked up a huge second place finish in the pole vault, clearing a height of 11-1.75. Freshman Katie Lee finished fourth overall, clearing 10-2.
John Walsh placed third in the long jump event, jumping 22-6 (6.87m) to tie his personal record. Chris Brooks placed eighth with his mark of 21-5.5. Tayler Williams won the women’s long jump event, at a mark of 18-7 and Veronica Gines finished fifth at 16-7. She would go on to win the triple jump event as well with her best mark at 39-11.5.
Michael Guerra and Derek Masterson with 2-3 in the javelin throw, Guerra throwing 193-11 and Masterson followed with a mark of 183-6. Grace Esslinger finished second on the women’s side with her mark of 136-7 and Jennifer Melton placing sixth with a mark of 107-6.
Scherer also competed in the shot put, placing fourth and throwing 49-11. Following close behind was freshman Kyle Strawn with a throw of 49-4. For the women’s shot put, Francis threw 42-1.25 for third place while Alyssa Manning threw 40-9.50 for fourth.
The Gaucho men swept the high jump event once again with Max Villalba clinching the first place spot with his clearance of 6-10.75 that surpassed his previous personal record by ¾ of an inch. Mitchell Haag cleared the same height of 6-10.75, also setting a new personal best by ½ of an inch. Mike Larocca and Mikael Powers finished third and fourth. Helena Montin cleared 5-5 to take first place in the women’s high jump and Melton cleared a height of 4-7.
Karlon Johnson and Arthur Dyson went 3-4 in the triple jump events, Johnson’s best mark at 45-7.25 and Dyson with 44-11. Julian Samson threw an impressive 159-10 in the discus event, placing second overall. Shigem would go on to place fourth with his best throw at 151-1. Kathleen Guzman threw 135-11, placing third and Freshman Heather Hawes throwing 131-9 and good for fifth place.
The track events were equally dominated by the Gauchos with many runners filling the top three places.
Andrea Jacobs set a new meet record in the steeplechase with her time of 10:48.53, beating former Gaucho Katie Voigtlander’s meet record time of 10:49.82 set in 2009. Anthony Masci answered with a first place finish in the men’s steeplechase, running 9:16.49.
The women won the 4x100m relay race (Kelsey Bolden, Jessica Johnson, Lauren Kodama, and Grace Esslinger) with a time of 47.05. The men’s relay team composed of Evan Walker, Jacob Vowels, Nate Harvey and Michael Aiken finished first with a time of 41.66 and a few hundredths of a second off from setting a new meet record.
Dani Moreno place fourth in the 1,500m with her time of 4:39.98 while Breanne Strenkowski place sixth in 4:63.63. Ryan Martin ran 3:57.05 in the 1,500m while Bhavik Kanzaria finished closely behind in 3:57.12.
Esslinger ran 14.46 in the 100m hurdles for fourth place and Cherise Dixon finished in 15.37. Mikael Powers and Sean Johnson went 2-3 in the 110m hurdles, Powers clocking in 14.94 and Johnson finishing in 15.00.
Cherelle McMillion placed third in the 400m dash, running 57.99 while Jennifer Carey ran 59.91. Marquis Caldwell dominated the men’s 400m and setting a meet record with his time of 47.71. Winton Nguyen ran 49.93, good for fifth place.
In the women’s 100m dash, Kelsey Bolden ran 12.6 while Megan Vyenielo ran 12.95. Evan Walker clocked in a time of 10.98 for third and Michael Aiken followed closely behind in 11.12.
Jordan Scott had an outstanding performance in the men’s 800m run where he set the meet record of 1:52.27 and winning the event. Nadim Houssain would finish in third with a time of 1:54.41. Camille Petty ran 2:20.76 in the 800m run while Alex Grant ran 2:22.30.
The 400m hurdles race was highlighted by Jimmy Martin’s second place finish of 55.26 and Humberto Garcia coming in 56.99. Amanda Rodriguez would clock in 64.49 and Freshman Monae Dale finishing at 67.07.
Grace Esslinger had a wind-aided time of 24.81 in the 200m dash, placing first followed by Jessica Johnson in 25.45. Michael Aiken would continue to rack up points for the Gauchos with his third place time of 22.14 and Jacob Vowels came in at 22.50.
Breanne Strenkowski highlighted the women’s 3k run by winning the event in 10:16.97 and Dani Moreno followed in second with a time of 10:20.20. Juan Paredes won the men’s 3k race in 8:28.28 and Bhavik Kanzaria finished fourth in 8:38.62.
The men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams finished a successful day with wins in both events. The women’s team consisting of Cherelle McMillion, Camille Petty, Amanda Rodriguez, and Jessica Johnson finished in 3:47.80. The men’s team composed of Nadim Houssasin, Marquis Caldwell, Jordan Scott and Ryan Martin contributed to a time of 3:14.54.
The Gauchos will return to action next weekend, March 10 at UC Riverside.
