This week the UCSB track and field teams will head to Azusa Pacific for the Mt. Sac Combined Events. This meet consists of the Mt. Sac Invitational for a select few runners, and the rest will compete in the Brian Clay Invitational.

After a strong performance for both teams at last week’s Big West Cup Challenge, the Gauchos will continue to prepare for the Big West Championship next month.

The men’s team will look to have another stellar performance on both sides of the match.

Junior Albert Hughes will be looking to come out strong once again and try to grab another first-place title in the hammer throw, where last week he recorded a toss of 199’1.

The freshmen trio of Zach Tombol, Jerrick Zhang and Darion Williams will come out hungry again this week after finishing third, fourth and fifth in the javelin in the Cup. Along with these young guns, another freshman in Denley Rodriguez will look to repeat on his top-five performance in the shot put.

Junior Shyan Vaziri comes into the competition riding a beautiful win-streak of four straight races in the 800m. He broke his personal record in the Big West Challenge Cup with a time of 1:50.08, which was just short of the meet’s all-time record.

The women’s team has had some incredible improvements so far this year and will continue to grow in this event.

Dominant sophomore Jessica Emde will surely show her colors again this week and hope to add another victory to her already astounding record. In her first two years in Santa Barbara, she has taken seven competitions by storm with her incredible high jump performances, including last week’s victory with a jump of 5’5”.

Sophomore Maxine Goyette will also look to keep her strong stretch of competitions alive and help out her Gauchos on the track side of things. She has been absolutely dominant with her recent wins in the 3000m steeplechase.

Events kicked off last night and will continue through the weekend. The Invitational events are set to start on Friday.

This article is an online exclusive and did not appear in the print edition of The Daily Nexus.

Photo by Mark Brocher of The Daily Nexus.