SCIAC Track & Field Championships Under Way
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (April 25, 2009) – All eight Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference teams congregated at Occidental College for the first of a two-day conference Championship meet.
In the morning athletes got going on the Upper and Lower soccer fields under a sunny Southern California sky with a slight breeze. Taylor Berliant out threw his teammate Noah Franz in the men’s hammer to earn the first of two SCIAC titles on the day. His mark of 108’10” was nearly 20-feet further than Franz’s.
In the women’s hammer, Cal Lutheran’s Christa Youngern claimed back-to-back SCIAC title in the event. Her throw of 162’2” earned first place ahead of two CMS Athenas’ Mary Moore (161’10”) and Maggie Crank (147’9”).
Cal Lutheran University senior, first year thrower, Chris Brouillette captured the javelin title with a throw of 198’, just ahead of seniors Andrew Bogrand (CMS) and Brad Morrow (UR) who had throws of 193’11” and 182’4”, respectively.
For the women Mackenzie Smith had the longest throw of the day at 135’6” ahead of Moore (129’2”) and Cal Lutheran freshman Britlyn Garrett who heaved the javelin 125’5”.
Berliant then moved down to the shot-put ring where he earned the top throw of the day at 49’10.5”, 6.5 inches further than teammate Stephen Powell who slightly edged another Stag, Grant Heffernan, to complete the CMS 1-2-3 sweep of the event.
For the third consecutive year Occidental senior Kera Bartlett claimed the pole vaulting title for the women when she cleared 10’6”. There was a tie for second place between Oxy’s Lisa Warren and CMS’s Melia Plotkin who each vaulted 10’.
One of the more exciting events of the day came in the men’s pole vault . Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ Warren Brown-Pounds cleared a height of 16’.75” to put himself among the Nation’s best vaulters. Occidental’s David Minguez finished second at 14’5.25”.
The long jump title on the women’s side went to sophomore Kashima Patridge from Whittier College as she leapt 17’2.25”. CLU’s Kara Komarzec was second with a jump of 16’8.75”, slightly edging out the Athenas’ Reny Colton (16’8”).
Senior Stag Jeff Clark earned the men’s long jump title with a leap of 22’11.25”. Joining Clark with jumps of more than 22 feet were Andy Green (UR – 22’8.5”), Kyle Hansen (CLU – 22’2.5”) and TC Collymore (WC – 22’1”)
Earning back-to-back SCIAC titles in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase was CMS senior Evelyn Ross who finished in 11:20.62. Two Tigers pulled up second and third as junior Grace Peck (11:41.30) and freshman Sadie Mohler (11:43.85) crossed the line separated by 2.5 seconds.
The final event of the evening, the men’s 3000 meter Steeplechase went to Pomona-Pitzer freshman Anders Crabo who completed the course in 9:23.55. A trio of Stags finished in the 2-4 spots.
The top six finishers in each final earn All-SCIAC recognition. A complete listing of results from day one can be found here.
At the end of competition today Claremont-Mudd-Scripps leads on both the men’s and women’s sides.
The Athenas, who have 45 points, are followed by Occidental (33.5) and Cal Lutheran (32) to round out the top three places. Redlands sits in fourth with 19 points as Whittier (10), Pomona-Pitzer (9.5) and La Verne (6) round out the women's field.
The Stags lead by an astonishing 65 points having posted 96 day one points. Redlands is next in line with 31 followed by Cal Lutheran who holds on to third with 21. Whittier and Occidental are tied for fourth with 13 points ahead of Pomona-Pitzer with 10. Each Caltech and La Verne have one point after the opening day.
