AZUSA, Calif. – The UC Santa Barbara Women's and Men's Track & Field team sent their distance squad to the Bryan Clay Invitational, where they competed in three days worth of distance events ranging from the 800-meter race to the 10,000-meter race. The Gauchos reeled in lots of individual success from the five events they took part in from Wednesday morning into Friday night.
WEDNESDAY
From the perspective of drastic improvement, the Gauchos achieved it on Wednesday as both junior Lindsey Reed and sophomore Parker Simmons recorded personal bests in their respective events. Reed took part in the 10,000m early on Wednesday, where she ran a time of 36:40.50 to start things off right for the Gauchos. Simmons followed up her immaculate performance with one of his own, achieving a personal best of 8:58.13 in the 3000m steeplechase later in the night.
THURSDAY
The second day of competition featured the 5000m and 800m races, where most of the pack gained personal bests. The 5000m saw senior Sophia Gutierrez place ninth overall and second in her heat with a personal record of 17:26.22. The time surpasses her previously set record of 17:55.10 that she set just weeks ago at the Mike Fanelli Distance Carnival. First-year Ryann Strawn (17:40.52) and junior Lexi Darley (17:56.62) also improved upon their career bests on the day.
The women's 800m witnessed Maya Lacamp and Alexa Bryson improve upon their previous best times, as Lacamp posted 2:13.74 while Bryson ran 2:17.75, just 0.1 seconds off her next best time set a few weeks prior. On the men's side, KC Barber set a personal record by more than two seconds, setting a time of 1:55.90 after recently recording a personal best in the event at Challenge Cup earlier in the season. Dylan Manning and Parker Herbert also had times under two minutes, as Manning was right behind Barber with a time of 1:55.94 and Herbert came in a second later at 1:56.79.
FRIDAY
Barber and Herbert did not call it quits after Thursday, as they were the only two Gauchos in the men's 1500m the next day. Barber recorded a time of 3:58.10 in the event while Herbert was just short of a sub four minute time at 4:00.97. Lacamp and Gutierrez continued to rack up personal bests on the weekend as they posted times of 4:36.24 and 4:42.11 in the women's 1500m, respectively, to cap off a successful meet for Santa Barbara.
UP NEXT
The second day of Mount SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. will continue for the Gauchos on Saturday, April 19. Upon conclusion of that meet, Santa Barbara will turn their heads towards preparing for and hosting the UC Santa Barbara Invite, a one-day event on April 26.
