This weekend the UCSB track team traveled to Palo Alto, Calif., to compete in the annual Stanford Invitational. Santa Barbara came back with a new school record and set NCAA regional marks.

“This was a nationally prestigious meet,” junior sprinter Kylie McCuen said. “I think we did pretty well.”

The Gaucho women earned recognition in the tournament, posting the three fastest times for this season’s Big West Conference. McCuen ran a season-best 55.23 in the 400-meter.

Junior middle distance runners Lauren Christman and Lindsay Christman ran the 5000-meter in 16:26.37 and 16:44.14, respectively.

“The Christman sisters ran so well in the 5000-meter,” Assistant Coach John Dagata said. “They both had regional qualifying times.”

Senior middle distance runner Cosette Smith also qualified for regionals with a personal-best time of 16:30.

Freshman distance runner Micah Tyhurst earned first place in the 5000-meter in a personal-best and regional-qualifying 14:36.1 for the men. Sophomore distance runner Scott McConville’s time of 3:46.24 in the 1500 broke alumni Dave Cullum’s 1997 UCSB record in addition to qualifying him for Regionals. Freshman distance runner Mike Chavez followed McConville with another regional-qualifying time with a mark of 3:47.61.

On the field, junior thrower Heather Quinn earned a first-place victory for the women in the shot put with a toss of 45-5, while freshman thrower Jeff Stewart tossed 52-11 for a personal record. Throwers freshman Tamasailau Hunkin and junior Becky Richey measured in at 135-09 in the discus and 22-10 in the javelin, respectively. Junior high-jumper Kent Centers brought home another first-place win for Santa Barbara, clearing 6-8 9/20.

“We had a good weekend – as a team we did well,” Dagata said. “There were a lot of good and solid performances.”

Santa Barbara will travel to Long Beach this weekend to compete in the Big West Challenge Cup, which will be first big test of the season for the Gauchos.

“Next weekend will be the first point of reference,” Dagata said. “If they keep up their performance, they will do really well.”