The Cal State Stanislaus track and field athletes put on impressive showings at last week’s California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships at the Al Brenda Track at Warrior Stadium — finishing with conference titles, better provisional marks and personal bests.
In other words, it was a nice preview to this year’s NCAA Division II Championships on May 26-28, also to be held at Warrior Stadium and expected to bring in thousands of athletes, coaches and spectators from across the country.
Alycia Wagner and Cuauhtemoc Vallejo-Howard both captured conference titles in their respective events. Wagner cleared a career-high 12 feet, 8 inches to win the women’s pole vault, beating her previous best mark by 1 1/4 inches. It was also good enough for the second best in school history.
Vallejo-Howard once again proved he’s one of the best hammer throwers in the conference after he unleashed a mark of 188 feet, 3 inches to take home his second CCAA title in three years.
Stanislaus runners Jesse Ooten and Terrance Ellis earned all-conference honors. Ooten was the third fastest in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.75 seconds, while Ellis finished third in the 800-meter run in 1 minute, 54.78 seconds.
In the heptathlon, senior Brittni Showers finished fourth overall with 4,365 points— just 35 points from reaching a provisional standard.
Other highlights include:
· Luther Bell placed fourth in the men’s high jump with a height of 6 feet, 2 inches and took fourth in the long jump with a 23-4 3/4.
· Rubye Elhard was sixth in the women’s 800 in 2:23.05.
· Rio Schwalbach recorded a top five finish in the high jump with a mark of 5-3 1/4.
· Vallejo-Howard also placed second in the discus after a provisional toss of 58 feet, 5 3/4, while teammate Conrad Deavellar came in fourth.
· Ooten also took third in the long jump with a leap of 23-6.
· Joey Nunes captured third in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 31 minutes, 40.28 seconds.
· Connor Birtwhistle came in fifth in the decathlon with 6,007 points.
