In just the second meet of the season, the UCSB track and field team received stellar performances by both men’s and women’s squads, but were unable to keep the Gaucho’s All-Cal Cup winning streaks alive.

With 165 points, the Gaucho women placed fourth in the five team field, which included fellow University of California schools UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC San Diego and UC Riverside. The fourth place finish breaks the Gaucho’s four Cal Cup winning streak. The Gaucho men also had their two-cup streak broken with a second place finish. The men’s 207.5 points trailed only Irvine’s 245.5 for the meet.

“Overall it was a good meet because it showed us where we were at against the competition, both as a team and individually,” junior hurdler Elmer Guzman said. “We went up against some conference teams and did well, so it was a good meet to build off of.”

Junior high jumper Jane Doolittle recorded the only win for the Gaucho women, jumping a meet high 5’5″. Freshmen pole vaulters Missy Burley and Jennifer Brown tied for third place on the day with vaults of 10’8″. On the track for the women, junior Danielle Domenichelli ran a 4:36.94 time in the 1500 meter run, good enough for a third place finish. The distance combination of Domenichelli (10:00.44) and senior Bethany Nickless (10:09.25) combined for a second and fourth place finish in the 3,000 meter run.

For the guys, the throws squad had their second dominating performance in two meets. Senior Jeff Stewart won both the hammer, with a throw of 53.18 meters, and shot-put, with a throw of 16.73 meters. Freshman Michael Guerra came in second place in his javelin debut for the Gauchos, throwing for 180’7″. Freshman Ryan Martin ran a blistering 1:52.41 for first place in the 800m run.

The Gauchos hope to build off these stellar individual and team performances as the season begins to pick up.

“We just need to continue to improve, get everyone healthy, and hopefully at the end of the season be a contender for the conference title,” Guzman said.