This weekend, the UCSB track and field team headed to San Luis Obispo to renew the Blue-Green rivalry with Cal Poly. Santa Barbara earned the sweep as both the men’s and women’s teams captured the victory in this dual meet.
The men defeated the Mustangs 102.5-99.5 while the women won 104-98.
In this dual meet, the Gauchos captured 21 of the 38 events. This was the last regular season event for both schools and they will now prepare to head into the Big West Championships.
The women’s team started off with a bang as sophomore distance runner Maxine Goyette took first place in the meet’s opening event, the 3000m steeplechase. She crushed the competition, coming through the line 19 seconds faster than the next runner with her time of 11:00.69.
Another sophomore, middle distance runner Tori Tsolis, continued Goyette’s explosive start in the next individual event, the 1500m run. She took first place in front of a herd of Mustangs with a time of 4:26.76.
On the men’s side of the track, junior middle distance runner Shyan Vaziri turned in his usual commanding performance. Vaziri took first place in both the 800m and the 1500m, with times of 1:51.93 and 3:46.84, respectively.
The throwing events proved to be a strong point for both the men’s and women’s team as the Gauchos captured first place in seven of the eight events.
Arguably the most impressive of these events was the men’s discus, as junior thrower Albert Hughes capped off the meet with a win in this event, ultimately leading to the team’s victory.
His throw of 50.15m in the discus towered over the next competitor and his event-winning hammer throw of 60.80m broke his personal best.
Along with Hughes, senior thrower Patrick Smith took first place in the shot put event with a throw of 15.64m. Freshman thrower Zach Tombol captured second place in the javelin throw with a toss of 53.08 meters.
The women’s team took first place honors on all of the throwing events with sophomore javelin thrower Melissa Rake leading the way. Rake dominated the javelin event with a throw of 42.60m, which was 12 meters further than all other competitors.
Santa Barbara continued to dictate as the women took first through fourth place in the discus throw, as well as first through third in both the hammer throw and the shot put events.
The Big West Championship is set to start on May 9 with the heptathlon and decathlon events and then continue on May 16 with the rest of the track and field events.
A version of this article appeared on page 5 of May 4th’s print edition of The Daily Nexus.
Photo by Mark Brocher of The Daily Nexus.
