SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – UC Santa Barbara took their Men's and Women's Track & Field team to Long Beach to compete in the Long Beach Opener. Over the course of the two-day event, the Gauchos showcased their talents in a variety of throwing, jumping, and track events.
FIELD
The events featured on the first day of competition consisted of the hammer throw and javelin for both the women and men. On the men's side, senior Andy Buttrell showed out with a top five finish in the hammer throw, recording a mark of 62.59m. Sam Polkenhorn took 18th of the 33 athletes in the event with a mark of 48.65m as well. Buttrell also found success in the shot put, taking sixth with a throwing distance of 15.95m while Saloni Khandhadia had a throw of 11.92m to land her just outside the top 10 of athletes.
For the women, junior Dimitra Vitogiannis made the top 10 in the hammer throw with 48.77m, followed by Savannah Mbamo with 46.76m and a 12th-place finish out of 35 competitors. Sophomore Kayla Yap also posted a mark of 45.68m to be among the top half of individuals in the event.
Freshman Madison Rust was the lone Gaucho in the javelin, recording a throw of 30.80m to round out events for Day 1.
Many Gauchos continued their prowess into Day 2 of the meet, including Eitan Goore in the pole vault, taking third with a launch of 5.08m.
Kennedy Johnson recorded a new school record in the women's triple jump with a mark of 12.78m, continuing to build on excellence in her junior year.
The discus witnessed Christopher Nora post a mark of 48.82m to take ninth place of 30 competitors on the men's side. Vitogiannis and Khandhadia continued to excel in the throwing events, posting 46.89m and 44.65m, in that order.
TRACK
The 4x100m relay marked the first event of the day that the Gauchos participated in and UC Santa Barbara started their day off right. While the women took sixth with a time of 47.41, the men set a new school record of 40.64 in the event, beating out their previous record that was set at Gaucho Relays a week prior.
In the 100m hurdles, Maddie Conte took third overall with a time of 13.70, just 0.07 seconds off of a first-place finish. Junior Alison Tjoe also took seventh in the event (14.58) for the women.
The 110m hurdles saw junior Dario Rock earn a spot on the podium with a 14.17 finish, followed by freshman Miles Paris (14.32) and Finn Andrews (14.33) in fifth and sixth.
In the 400m dash, freshman Natalia McGowan nearly recorded under sixty seconds in the women's race while freshman Denny Dong took seventh out of 26 competitors with a time of 49.35.
The 100m dash was next, where three Gauchos finished in the top 10, including Parker Halgren (12.21) for the women and Matthew Staples (10.51) and Curtis Borden (10.53) in the men's dash. Staples took third while Borden took fifth.
Sophomores Meagan Kennedy and Mia Ziblatt took on the 800m, where they finished side-by-side in sixth and seventh for UC Santa Barbara. Kennedy recorded a time of 2:22.22 while Ziblatt was right behind with a time of 2:22.47.
The Gauchos dominated the 400m hurdles on both sides, where Nyenuchi Okemgbo and Tjoe took the top two spots with times of 1:01.79 and 1:02.33, respectively. Andrews and Julian Singull also took second and third in the men's race with final times of 54.66 and 55.19, in that order.
A total of seventeen athletes for the Gauchos competed in the 200m dashes. For the women, Conte (24.25), Sophia Pardo (24.31), Aoife Hernon (24.48), and Mia Shepard (24.62) all finished in the top 10. Justin Steele and Staples also did so for the men's race, posting times of 21.18 and 21.51 to get second and seventh overall, respectively.
The 4x400m relay saw the women beat out all of the competition by almost four seconds at 3:45.03. The men took fourth after a photo finish with San Diego Mesa College, where both teams had a time of 3:14.55.
UP NEXT
After four straight days of competition in two separate meets, the Gauchos will rest up and prepare themselves for the Challenge Cup in Irvine, Calif. The one-day event will commence on Friday, March 14.
