May 8, 2000
THIS WEEK:
Fri. May 12 at Cardinal Qualifier - Stanford, CA Evening
Sat.-Sun. May 13-14 at Pac-10 Multi-Event - Eugene, OR All Day
Sat. May 13 at Modesto Relays - Modesto, CA All Day
CAL ATHETES COMPETE IN VARIOUS MEETS
Cal's track and field team is scattered at three meets this weekend. Senior Bevan Hart and junior Missy Vanek compete at the Pac-10 Multi-Event Championship Sat.-Sun., May 13-14, at the University of Oregon. Friday, the Bears send distance runners to the Cardinal Qualifier. Saturday, Cal's sprinters and jumpers travel to the 59th-annual Modesto Relays. The women's hammer opens the Modesto Relays at 9 a.m., with the first running event being the men's 110mH trials at 1 p.m. The meet wraps up at 5:25 p.m., with the men's 4x400m relay.
HART, VANEK LOOK TO MAKE PAC-10 HISTORY
Bevan Hart, the defending Pac-10 decathlon champion, and Missy Vanek look to become the first teammates to win both conference multi-event titles in the same year. Both athletes enter the meet with the highest qualifying mark. Hart posted 7620 points at the UC Davis Multi-event meet, while Vanek amassed a career-best 5554 points at the same meet. Cal looks for its fourth-straight Pac-10 decathlon crown as Ross Bomben won in 1997 and '98. Hart earned a career-best 7773 points, taking third at the 1999 NCAA meet. Vanek looks to join Ifeoma Ozoeze (1995) as the only Pac-10 heptathlete winners from Cal.
BIG MEET IN REVIEW
For the first time since 1996, the California men's and women's track and field teams swept Stanford in the annual Big Meet Saturday at Edwards Stadium. The Cal women earned an 83 2/3-79 1/3 victory, while the Cal men claimed an 84-79 decision. The Bear women were powered by victories in seven of eight field events and a come-from-behind victory by sophomore Erin Belger in the 800m. Meanwhile, the men's race came down to the final event, the 4x400m relay, with the Bears winning and earning the decisive five points. Senior Chuck Berkeley, the Big Meet 400m champion, fittingly anchored Cal's winning relay.
HOLLIVERSE EARNS MOST POINTS FOR BEARS
Freshman April Holliverse helped lead Cal to its first Big Meet title over the Stanford women since 1996. She was Cal's best overall performer, accounting for 15 points with three victories. The Los Angeles native won the 100mH (PR: 14.09), the 400mH (1:01.03) and ran the third leg of Cal's winning 4x400m relay (45.75), which is the fourth best performance in Cal history.
MACK, DESOMBER OVERCOME INJURIES TO LEAD CAL TO WIN
Every point is extremely critical in dual meet competitions. It takes 82 points to win a dual meet, and 11 of Cal's 84-79 victory points were accounted for by two athletes who were not expected to compete. Sophomore Jerriod Mack underwent an emergency appendectomy 17 days prior to the Big Meet and returned to competition over the weekend. He won the triple jump (five points) with a near PR mark of 51-4.5 and placed second (three points) in the long jump (23-7.5). Sophomore Nate DeSomber sustained a neck injury during spring football but earned three points for his second-place finish in the shot put (54-1).
OTHER BIG MEET KUDOS
An array of PRs were posted by Cal at the Big Meet, including NCAA provisional qualifying marks from Garrett Collier in the hammer and Dana Lawson in the shot put. Senior Peter Gilmore also ran an NCAA provisional mark in the 10,000m Friday night at the Cardinal Invitational.
