The UCSB men’s and women’s track teams blew past the competition at Saturday’s All-Cal Challenge Cup, racing to both team victories and 12 individual titles at the Irvine classic.

The men’s team held on to finish with 248 points, just 16 points more than second place UC Irvine. The Gaucho women easily grabbed their third All-Cal title in a row, with a victory over second place UC San Diego, scoring 251.5 points to the Tritons’s 223 points.

“I hope this is a little bit of foreshadowing for the end of the season, when both teams will hopefully be winning conference,” senior sprinter Kylie McCuen said.

The Gauchos set thirty Big West qualifying marks, five new UCSB top ten marks, and eight personal best times at the one day meet.

“Everybody loves to win and we had some really good performances,” McCuen said. “One person qualified for Regionals and we had a lot of people make the top ten lists.”

Senior Gabe Mann was the lone NCAA Regional qualifier for UCSB with his first place javelin throw of 204.10 feet.

“Gabe was a big standout. … one of our first meets and he’s already qualifying for Regionals, that’s exciting,” McCuen said.

In the sprints, McCuen dominated the two events she won at the 2005 Big West Championship, winning both the 200- and 400-meter races. Her times of 24:79 in the 200-meter and 56.06 in the 400-meter were enough to qualify her for the 2006 Championship.

Other high finishers for the women runners included junior Stephanie Rothstein’s first place in the 5000-meter, senior Elise Geiger’s second place in the 200-meter, and junior Stellamarie Hall’s second place in the 100-meter hurdles.

On the men’s side, junior Ryan Donnelly won the 200-meter dash with a time of 21:96, a Big West qualifying time. Other event winners for the men runners included junior Mike Chavez in the 1500-meter and junior J.D. Krawczyk in the 5000-meter.

The Gaucho women and men also performed well in the field events, with the women overcoming several important absences.

“Our two top throwers are red-shirting but Charlene Heaston was able to get first in the shot put, so that’s pretty good,” McCuen said. “If Charlene and [junior Jamie Schwarzbach] step it up I think we’ll be covered in the throws.”

Heaston also took second place in the hammer throw and third in the discus. Her throw of 149.02 feet in the hammer was her personal best and the 7th all-time best for UCSB. She also qualified for the Big West Championship in the discus, hammer and shot put.

Other winners in the field events for the Gauchos included junior Eugene Tuzkov in the pole vault and sophomore Jeff Stewart in the shot put.

The Gauchos look to improve at next week’s Benny Brown Invitational held at Cal State Fullerton and Mt. SAC.

“That’s what a lot of these meets are, just getting back in the swing of things and seeing what we need to work on,” McCuen said.