The first day of the 2007 NCAA West Regional Championships is in the books and four Big West clubs recorded points after the day of competition. The championships are being held at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore.
On the women’s side, Cal Poly was the high scorer among the Big West squads with 10 points, good for eighth overall. UC Santa Barbara is tied for ninth place with nine points, while Long Beach State sits in a tie for 11th with eight points. Cal State Northridge scored one point on the day to sit in a tie for 20th place in the standings.
The men’s standings saw two Big West clubs pick up points after day one as Cal State Northridge sits in a tie for ninth with eight points and UC Santa Barbara finished Friday in 14th place with three points.
Sharon Day of Cal Poly gave the Mustangs’ women’s contingent all 10 of their points after winning the high jump. Day, the 2005 NCAA champion in the event, cleared 1.84 meters along with California’s Inika McPherson, but was given the crown after recording one fewer miss. Cal Poly’s men’s squad had two runners advance to finals tomorrow as Phillip Reid (3:43.80) and Evan Anderson (3:45.28) finished in the top 12 of the 1500-meter run.
Cal State Fullerton will be represented in a pair of finals tomorrow as the men’s 4x100-meter relay team and an individual competitor advanced after the day’s prelims. The Titan relay contingent of Lawrence Trice, Marques Barosso, Chris Epstein and Maurice Chappelle finished second in their heat and fifth overall with a time of 40.47. Epstein pulled double duty as he also qualified for the finals in the 400-meter dash after finishing sixth overall at 48.03.
Cal State Northridge picked up its lone point on the women’s side thanks to Desirae Gonder’s effort of 1.76 in the high jump. Deanna Goodwin booked a trip to the finals of the 400-meter dash after winning her heat and finishing third overall with a time of 53.89. She will also appear in the finals of the 200-meter dash after finishing third in her heat and fourth overall at 23.52.
Rolando Felizola and DaShalle Andrews gave the Matadors points in the long jump as Felizola finished third with a mark of 7.57 meters, while Andrews was seventh with an effort of 7.42 meters. The CSUN 4x100-meter relay squad finished the prelims in seventh place after recording a time of 40.77. Other Matador athletes advancing to tomorrow finals are Thomas Ross and Anthony Brown (110-hurdles).
Long Beach State had a solid day as several athletes either qualified for tomorrow’s finals or the NCAA Championships in June. Kim Heinz advanced to the NCAA Championships after finishing fourth in the javelin with a mark of 50.67 meters, while Alex Shaw also picked up points for the 49ers with a sixth place finish in the event at 46.79 meters. Jessica Branker moved on to the final of the 100-meter dash after a personal-record effort of 11.72 placed her fifth overall., while Erricka Feazell (100-meter hurdles) and the women’s 4x100-meter relay squad will also appear in finals Saturday. On the men’s side, Alex Goldberg moved onto the 400-meter dash final after finishing eighth overall.
UC Santa Barbara’s Amy Haapanen picked up early points for the Gauchos with her third place finish in the shot put at 15.58 meters. Stephanie Rothstein (16:38.60) and Megan Lewis (16:39.78) picked up the final points for the UCSB women’s squad. Eugene Bradley picked up the three points for the UCSB after fnishing sixth in the hammer throw with a toss of 64.62 meters. Mike Chavez moved on to the final of the 1,500-meter run after finishing fifth with a time of 3:45.46.
UC Irvine and UC Riverside each sent one athlete to tomorrow’s finals as the Highlanders’ Brenda Martinez won her heat and was second overall in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:22.87, while Ricky Barnes of UCI finished third in his heat and seventh overall in the event at 3:43.97.
The second and final day of action is slated to begin at 11 a.m. with the men's javelin, while the track events are scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. with the men's 4x100-meter relay final.