University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Bruins Complete First Day Of Cal/Nevada Track Championships
April 29, 2000
Box Score
BERKELEY - The seventh-annual California/Nevada State Track and Field Championships kicked off Saturday with primarily preliminary competitions Saturday at Edwards Stadium/Goldman Field. About 75 degree weather and clear blue skies graced the newly-remodeled $3.5 million renovated stadium in Berkeley.
Humboldt State's Tim Miller propelled his team into the early lead for the men's team title, earning 10 points for his win in the 3000m SC (8:56.20), which nearly beat the 1994 meet record of 8:56.00, set by Mike Tansley of Cal State Fullerton. The Cal men are tied for fifth after earning five points in the 3000m SC with Brian Cooke finishing sixth (9:18.46) and Chris Coffee finishing eighth (PR: 9:19.18).
UCLA leads the women's team race with 32 points after two events behind first- and third- place finishes in the hammer and third- and fourth- place finishes in the 3000m. Cal State Northridge is second with 11 points, while UC Santa Barbara is third with 10 points and Cal is fourth with eight points.
The women's hammer, men's 3000 meter steeplechase and women's 3000 meters were the only final events contested Saturday. UCLA's Christina Tolson turned in a record-breaking performance in the hammer, winning the event with a throw of 204-01. That mark broke Cal's Jennifer Joyce's stadium record (199-0) set earlier this year and Tolson's meet record (194-03) set in 1998. Joyce finished second with a Cal record throw of 203-02, breaking her own school record of 201-04.
One of the best events for the Cal men was the 800 meters as three athletes posted personal best times. John Collin (1:52.90) and Mike Pestorich (1:52.95) advanced to Sunday's finals, while Zack McGahey, however, ran a 1:52.88 but did not advance to the finals because he wasn't one of the top two runners in his heat. Another bright spot for the Cal men was Bevan Hart advancing to the 110 meter hurdles final with a PR of 14.69 in the preliminaries.
Cal's Dana Lawson advanced to tomorrow's shot put final, finishing second in the preliminaries today with a PR of 48-04.5. Her previous PR was 47-04.25. The Bears Shavone Jennings moves on to the 400m final after running a PR of 56.06 in the preliminaries.
The California/Nevada State meet wraps up tomorrow with entirely event finals. Competition begins at 8 a.m., with the men's hammer throw and concludes at 4:15 p.m., with the men's 4x400m Relay.The first running event is the women's 5000m at 1 p.m. The top eight competitors in each event advance to Sunday's finals, except the men's and women's 1500m where the top 12 competitors advance.