Feb. 26, 2005

Results

Seattle, WA -

The Golden Bears wrapped up their first day of preliminary competition at the MPSF Championships in Seattle today. After scoring only four events on the men's side, the Bears have 39 points over second-place UCLA at 19 points. On the women's side, Stanford leads at 37.5 points, while Cal sits in last with only two points. The women will improve their standing heartily tomorrow when their high-scoring track events take place. Along with a countless number of personal records set by Cal athletes, eight school records fell in preliminary and final competitions, while Rhuben Williams earned the first conference crown for the Bears in the men's weight throw.

 

THE WOMEN

 

Long Jump

The women's long jump started off with five Cal athletes in a field of 18. Of the five, Cassandra Strickland, Elzunia Lamb and Qadriyyah Abdullah made significant personal records that carried them into the finals, where Abdullah fouled her fifth and final jump, landing her well past six meters. The Cal women finished fourth, sixth, and eighth with Abdullah on top at 5.98m (19-07.50), Strickland at 5.88m (19-02.00) and Lamb at 5.64m (18-07.00).

 

Weight Throw

Giulia Urlando was the sole Cal competitor in the 25-pound weight throw. Urlando he had a hard time throwing up to her potential. She managed to match her PR of 16.40m, but had difficulty in the finals, where preliminary marks would not count towards the final standings. Urlando finished in 11th place after a 15.44m (50-00.50) effort.

 

400m

Freshman Brook Turner was the only Cal athlete in the 400m, but she ran the second fastest time in the field winning her heat and breaking her first school record of the day, blazing a 55.48 to finish nearly a half-second ahead of the next fastest runner.

60mH

Junior Osarhiemen Omwanghe won a hotly contested preliminary heat in the 60mH where she had the fourth fastest time of the day. Running well behind her personal best of 8.38, Omwanghe beat back Arizona's Jennifer Whitlock and clocked 8.50. She'll have tough competition tomorrow against UCLA's Dawn Harper and Ashely Lordee of Washington.

 

60m

Two Golden Bears managed to make it into tomorrow's finals in the 60m. Senior Shannon Hawes was Cal's fastest qualifier, coming in at 7.62 and beating her seasonal best by .01. Sophomore Tiffany Johnson won her heat in 7.63 and advanced as well.

 

800m

Chloe Jarvis, who ran a 2:06.95, built on the dominance she has been displaying in her signature event through the indoor season by coming within a second of the NCAA automatic qualifying time in the preliminary heats. Jarvis won her heat easily, beating out the rest of the field by nearly three seconds while still conserving energy for tomorrow's final. Freshman Alysia Johnson finished third in her heat at 2:09.34 and still had the fourth fastest time overall, which gave her an easy berth to the finals.

 

5000m

Abby Parker finished in sixth place with a time of 17:14.44, breaking the school record set in 1994 by Tenaya Sodeman. Parker has an outdoor PR of 17:12.69 in the 5000m.

 

200m

All three athletes the Bears had entered in the 200m managed to qualify for the finals. Brook Turner and Shannon Hawes both won their heats, as Turner broke the school record with a 24.70 clocking and Hawes ran 24.72, which also would have broken the old school record. The third Bear to qualify, Tiffany Johnson qualified at 25.04.

 

DMR

The women's relay ran into some trouble when freshman Alysia Johnson went for a dangerous pass during the 400m leg and ended up getting tripped. Senior Lindsay Maclise then took the baton and managed to keep Cal in the race and gained heartily on the Oregon and Stanford teams. Senior Bridget Duffy then got the baton and held on for a third place finish and saw another school record broken.

 

Pole Vault

Cal pole vaulters Katie Morgan and Danielle Navarre both made 3.62m, which tied them for 12th place.

 

THE MEN

 

Mile

Andy McClary broke his lifetime best by eight seconds in the preliminary heats for the mile run, coming in at 4:09.93 for the Bears. McClary had to settle for a 14th-place finish in a fast field that saw 4:07.53 as the slowest time to make the finals.

 

400m

Cal's Darren Woods and Jonathan Suddaby both had great preliminary races in the men's 400m. Suddaby ran a strong opening 150, held on to second clear to the tape and finished in 48.00 for a lifetime best. Woods dashed out fast in the beginning of his heat and was first to the pole, giving him an easy opportunity to secure a win in his heat in an indoor lifetime best of 46.90. That time crushed his own school record of 47.69 set by Woods at the MPSF meet last year.

 

60mH

Thomas Mack ran only .01 above his personal record in his heat of the 60mH to come in at 8.03, while teammate Craig Gallimore shaved almost two-tenths off his indoor best to come in at 8.10. Despite clobbering the first hurdle, Gallimore managed to stay in the race and came in fourth. The effort was for naught, as Gallimore was the fastest time not to qualify for the finals. Mack's time made him the sixth fastest qualifier and secured a lane in the finals for tomorrow.

 

60m

Sprinter Toby Atawo was the only Bear out of three entered who managed to make it to the finals, clocking 6.86, which was good enough for second in his heat and a sixth place seed in the finals. In the first heat of the 60m, Rashaad Nunnally and Steven Conrad both raced to third and fourth place finishes, coming in at 6.90 and 6.97, respectively, but missed the finals. The slowest time to advance was 6.89.

 

800m

Freshman Alex McClary ran 1:51.73 wasting no effort in the qualifying rounds by securing the second-to-last qualifying spot with a time only .79 behind his personal best. Senior Randy Fair had to withdraw from the race due to a pre-existing foot injury.

 

5000m

Girmay Guangul, school record holder in the 10,000m, added the indoor 5000m school record to his resume in a third-place finish. The time was also good for an NCAA provisional qualifier.

 

200m

After breaking his own school record in the 400m, sophomore Darren Woods cruised to within a hundredth of senior Toby Atawo's school record. Meanwhile, Atawo won his own heat in a time of 21.78 and advanced to the finals where any further attempts on the record will now have to take place.

 

DMR

The men's DMR set the last school record of the day in its third place finish behind UCLA and Stanford. The team of Davis, Solis, McClary and Ghebray shared the third-place spot with Arizona for much of the race and finally broke away to finish five seconds ahead of Arizona's team.

 

Long Jump

Both Brandon Williams and Stephen Conrad jumped to personal bests. After the first flight Williams stood in first place with a jump of 7.38m (24-02.50), which remained his best mark through the finals and gave him a fifth place finish. Conrad jumped 7.15m (23-05.50), just shy of a scoring place.

 

Weight Throw

In the weight throw, the men dominated as all four Golden Bears threw seasonal bests and team captain Rhuben Williams led a Cal 1-2-6-7 finish, which scored a total of 23 points. Nate Rolfe was second and threw a personal best mark of 18.10m (59-04.75). Senior Tony Miranda and redshirt freshman John Ludden came in sixth and seventh, respectively. Miranda threw 17.37m (57-00.00) and Ludden threw 16.93m (55-06.50).

 

Competition continues tomorrow with the finals for events that have not already been scored