Santa Barbara, Calif. - UC Santa Barbara Track and Field will be in store for a convenient wake up call after finals week with a trip to San Diego to compete at the 41st Annual Aztec Invitational hosted by San Diego State University this weekend. The meet will run Thursday to Saturday and will feature an approximate total of over 3,000 athletes competing, including Division 1 universities such as Air Force, Arizona, BYU, Grand Canyon, Kansas State, Loyola Marymount, Nevada, Oregon, San Diego, UCLA, Utah, and Wisconsin.
Meet Information
Heat Sheets
Live Results
Directions
The Aztec Sports Deck is located on the corner of Montezuma Road and 55th Street. SDSU is easily accessible from the I-8 Freeway (Exit Fairmont Avenue and continue on Montezuma if coming from the west; exit College Avenue South and make a right on Montezuma if coming from the east).
Parking/Admissions
Track parking is available in Parking Structure (PS) 7, located directly underneath the track. Parking passes can be purchased from the yellow parking kiosk located on the top level of the parking structure for $3/hr or $15/5-10hrs. Parking will be free for the Saturday portion of the meet because of the campus open house occurring on the same day. Attendees must pay parking for Thursday and Friday. Additional information on parking can be found at the link displayed here.
Tickets will be sold Friday and Saturday at the Ticket Office near the track entrance. Admission to the meet for spectators will be $5 (cash only). Those who are 12 and under will be allowed free entry to spectate.
Gauchos to Watch
Women
The 800m squad will be planning for back to back races with all of them entered in the open heats of the 800m on Friday and the invite heats on Saturday. They will be lead by sophomore Astrid Rosvall who pulled off the 1500m-800m double at the home Tri Meet against UC Riverside and Cal Poly two weeks ago, her 1500m performance fast enough to put her on the UCSB All-Time List at No. 10. Maddie Meade and Bronwyn Bunnell should follow closely behind Rosvall, the two of them setting personal bests at the Tri Meet with respective times of 2:12.96 and 2:14.84. The three of them together are currently ranked second, third, and sixth in the Big West.
Junior Tori Palma is scheduled for three throwing events once again for both the open and invite sections of the discus, hammer, and shot put. She most recently climbed to No. 7 on the UCSB All-Time List thanks to her 13.96m throw at the Tri Meet, having moved up from No. 10 when she threw 13.46 at the Gaucho Round-Up back in February. Freshman Gabriela Sanchez will also be tripling in the discus, hammer, and shot after winning the disc at the Tri Meet over Palma by just over a meter in 42.37. Her mark currently stands at sixth in the conference for that event.
Freshman Kendall Martin will be dialed in for just the invitational section of the javelin after a huge personal best of 41.35m to put her at No. 5 on the All-Time List, placing less than a meter behind 2016 Big West Conference champion Megan Mooney of Cal Poly at the Tri Meet. She's added around four meters to her best each time she has competed this season.
Freshman Chloe Kimes will lead the long hurdles in the invitational section of the 400m hurdles after setting a new personal best two weeks ago at 1:03.54. Junior Ruby Mandell has been slowly rounding into form after finishing just behind Kimes in 1:03.55 and may look to further shave off time as the season progresses.
Men
Redshirt freshman Brian Schulz will be dropping in distance for the first time this season to take on the invitational section of the men's 1500m. Coming off a Big West leading mark in the 5000m at 14:30.22, he'll be spearheading the Gaucho peloton that'll include nine UCSB athletes in the event alone.
Sophomore Chase Tarr returns to competition in the men's javelin this weekend after sitting out the last two meets due to injury. Tarr is coming off a big 2018 season where he added ten plus meters to his personal best in the event and placed third at the conference meet, so he'll be itching to return to form starting this Saturday.
The men's 4x400m relay team will be in for a treat as they're scheduled to run the invitational section against some top notch competition, including a few Pac 12 universities and international teams from Qatar and China. They have yet to go against a field this stacked so this will be a prime opportunity to face some high level competition.
Lastly, it's not a trip to San Diego without senior Kordell "Diesel" Hampton looking to put on a show in the discus. The Lemon Grove native seems to always bring something special to the table when he's back home as he's broken the discus school record twice in the past two years at this meet. Whether he shatters another gem of a record or not remains to be seen, but if it's anything like the last two times he's been at this meet Kordell will be sure to give the crowd something to behold.
Check back at UCSBGauchos.com for future coverage and follow the team on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for additional photos and news.
