RENO, Nev. – The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos took their women's indoor track & field team to compete in their first indoor meet at Nevada Invitational/Multis, where several athletes shined during the three-day event. After the Pentathlon on the first day, the second day of the meet began with the weight throw, followed by the long jump, high jump, 400-meter dash, and the 200-meter dash. The third and final day saw the Gauchos compete in the shot put, triple jump, 60-meter hurdles, 60-meter dash, 400-meter dash, 600-meter run, and the 4x400-meter relay.
FRIDAY EVENTS
The first event on Friday saw Savannah Mbamo post a personal record in the weight throw with a sixth place finish and a 16.04m throw. Saloni Khandhadia recorded a throw of 13.71m and Dimitra Vitogiannis threw 13.45m for 22nd and 24th place finishes, respectively.
The long jump witnessed Natalie Lyons take 16th place overall on a 5.58m jump while Amor Jones and Quincie Richards each jumped for 4.86m and 4.51m, in that order.
After competing in the Pentathlon the day before, Allison Tito secured a top 10 placement in the high jump, placing 9th with a jump of 1.63m.
The first track event of the second day was the 400-meter dash, where Mia Shepard (55.92), Sophia Pardo (56.60), and Nyenuchi Okemgbo (57.53) all recorded personal records and top 10 finishes overall. Shepard holds the fastest indoor 400m time for a freshman in UC Santa Barbara history. All three hold the third, fifth, and sixth fastest times in school history as well.
The last event of the day was the 200-meter dash in which Maddie Conte ran a blazing 24.33s to place sixth in the event, post a personal best, and set the second fastest time in school history, just behind the record of 24.32s by Mariana Lanz in 2023. Three more Gauchos set personal records, as Pardo (24.81s) and Shepard (24.83s) each won their heat and Briana Bartone (25.25s) placed second in her heat.
SATURDAY EVENTS
On the last day of competition, Mbamo started the day with yet another personal best, but in the shot put. Mbamo threw 11.65m while Khandhadia threw for a distance of 11.02m.
Kennedy Johnson showed out in the triple jump, placing second overall with a jump of 12.50m, which is the best mark in the Big West. Richards jumped for a distance of 11.11m to place 13th.
For the 60-meter hurdles prelim and 60-meter dash prelim, entries were split into a silver section and a blue section. In the silver section of the 60-meter hurdles prelim, Conte took first in her heat and sixth overall with a time of 8.62s, qualifying for the 60-meter hurdle final. In the blue section, Alison Tjoe placed second overall, finishing at 9.04s to send her to the 60-meter hurdle finals.
In the finals, Conte (8.56s) ran 0.06s faster than her previous time to take fifth while Tjoe (9.05s) took fourth.
In the prelims of the 60-meter dash, the silver section saw Bartone set a personal best of 7.73s and Jones posting a time of 7.82. Parker Halgren qualified for the final in the blue section, placing fifth overall and running 7.78s. In the final, Halgren ran 7.80s and placed fifth in the heat.
In a second section of the 400-meter dash, Aoife Hernon took first in her heat and third overall running 55.67s. Hernon, as a sophomore, was 0.47s off of a new school record in the indoor 400m, which is also held by Lanz.
Quinn Petzold, who also competed in the Pentathlon two days prior, placed in the top 10 and was second in her heat for the 600m run, timing in at 1:43.49.
Lastly, UC Santa Barbara competed in the 4x400m relay, where Pardo, Shepard, Hernon, and Conte recorded a school record by nearly three seconds. The currently #1 ranked 4x400m team in the Big West placed second overall in the meet and ended up with a time of 3:44.27.
"This was our season opener, where for all other teams, this was their second or third meet already" said track & field director Vijay Saxena. "We did really well, and the freshmen were especially impressive for not having even seen an indoor track before."
UP NEXT
The UC Santa Barbara Women's Indoor Track team will take the next few weeks to rest and prepare for back-to-back events in Cambridge, Mass. and Boston, Mass. The Gauchos will compete at Crimson Elite on Feb. 7, followed by the Bruce Lehane Scarlet & White Invite on Feb. 8.
