Occidental Plays Host to SCIAC Top-4 Meet

LOS ANGELES, CALIF.  (Mar. 14, 2009) – The top four teams in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference met today on the Bill Henry Track, with field events taking place on the upper and lower soccer fields, for a conference show-down that began at 10 a.m. and finished around 4:00 p.m. after a day full of tough competition and excellent performances.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps ran away with the victories on both the women’s and men’s sides combined 92.50 and 100  points, respectively. On the women’s side Cal Lutheran earned the second spot with 47 points, followed by Occidental (33.5) and Redlands (31). For the men Oxy placed second with 32.5 points ahead of Cal Lutheran University (32), and the University of Redlands (25).

Among the meet highlights was the men’s 4x400 Relay in which CMS pulled out a slim victory over Oxy, winning by .27 of a second. The women’s 4x100 Relay went to CMS, over Cal Lutheran, by .02 of a second, marking the closest race of the day.

On the women’s side Evelyn Ross from CMS earned the Athenas first place points in both the 1500m race and 3000m steeplechase last night. Occidental freshman Meghan Wahlen won the 1500m race today and was second in the 800m.

In the field Cal Lutehran’s Christa Youngern was victorious in both the shot put and hammer throw with distances of 38’10.5” and 161’1”, respectively. Mackenzie Smith from the University of Redlands tossed the javelin an incredible 139’4”

For the men CMS slightly outran UR in the 4x100 relay in a time of 43.05 to the Bulldogs’ 43.79. A pair of Stags earned provisional NCAA marks with Jeff Clark clearing 6’8” in the high jump while teammate Taylor Berliant tossed the hammer 179’8”. Clark was also the top finisher in the triple jump (45’4.5”) ahead of Occidental’s Sam Huie (45’2.5”). Berliant also won the shot put with a throw of 50’6.25”

Cal Lutheran’s Kyle Hansen won three events today. His long jump of 22’6.25” was just under a foot further than the next closest finisher, Clark. Additionally, Hansen won both the 110m hurdles (15.23) and the 400m hurdles (56.54).

The bottom four teams in the conference met today at Caltech. All teams, however, competed at the Oxy Distance Carnival meet last night with the 3000m steeplechase, 1500m and the 5000m event results counting towards today’s finals.

Final results can be found here. Team results can be seen here.

Next up for the Tigers will be the Cal/Nevada Invitational hosted at UCLA on Friday and Saturday, March 27 and 28 as a pair of all day events.