April 18, 2002
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This Week
The San Diego State track and field program will be in Walnut, Calif., this weekend for the annual Mt. SAC Relays and Heptathlon. The heptathlon competition will be held at Azusa Pacific on Thursday and Friday. Competition in the other events gets underway on Friday, with finals being held on Sunday. SDSU comes off a weekend in which it placed fourth at its All-Women Invitational and its 4x400 relay team set an NCAA provisional mark at the Sun Angel Classic in Tempe, Ariz.
SDSU Lately
Noting the SDSU All-Women Invitational
* SDSU's Jillita Griffin placed first in the 100-meter dash and second in 200-meter dash on Saturday. Griffin's finishes were part of eight top-three finishes for the Aztecs.
* Griffin raced to a first-place time of 12.53 in the 100 meters and clocked in at 25.43 in the 200 meters. She also ran the anchor leg for the Aztecs 4x400 relay team that placed third with a time of 3:54.55.
* Also highlighting the day's running events was Leslie Miller, who took first in the 100 hurdles with a time 14.57.
* SDSU's pole vaulters continued to shine, with Shayla Balentine and Patricia Gutierrez again clearing NCAA provisional marks. The pair placed 1-2 on Saturday, with Balentine clearing 12-10.77 (3.93m) and Gutierrez 12-6.75 (3.83m). Balentine has now set seven NCAA provisional marks this season.
* Candace Hill, a graduate of San Diego's Hoover High School, also came away from Saturday with some impressive marks, placing first in the discus with a throw of 139-9 (42.61m) and fourth in the hammer with a mark of 139-7 (42.56m).
Noting the ASU Sun Angel Classic
* The Aztecs' 4x400-meter relay team of Tonette Dyer, Ryan Peters, Jini Hogg and Hollann Givens raced to an NCAA provisional and season-best time of 3:36.82 at the Sun Angel Classic on the Arizona State campus. The time places the team third all-time on the SDSU records chart. The mark is the Aztecs' second provisional one of the season in the event, with the team of Dyer, Givens, Hogg and Melinda Smedley having raced to a time of 3:38.81 at the Cal-Nevada Championships in March.
* Dyer, Peters, Hogg and Givens also competed in the 4x100 relay, placing fourth with a time of 45.57.
Looking Ahead
On April 27th, the squad will split with some traveling to the Oregon Invitational and others heading across town to the UCSD Invitational.
Under Consideration
The Aztecs' NCAA provisional mark in the 4x400 this past weekend is the ninth consideration mark set by SDSU this season. The Aztecs' "A" relay squad had already set qualifying marks in the 4x100 and 4x400 at the Cal-Nevada meet in March. Tonette Dyer, a member of both those relay squads, ran an NCAA provisional mark in the 200 meters at the UNLV Desert Classic. Dyer also raced to a provisional time of 53.37 in the 400 meters at the Cal-Nevada Championships. Three SDSU pole vaulters, Shayla Balentine, Patricia Gutierrez and Jesika Englebretson, have cleared a provisional mark at least once this season.
Among The National Leaders
Several Aztecs are listed among the top times and marks in the nation this season. Tonette Dyer's time in the 200 meters (23.41) and 400 meters (53.37) are the seventh and 16th best this season. The team's time in the 4x100 (44.77) is the 16th fastest, to go along with the 14th best in the 4x400 (3:36.82). Shayla Balentine's 13-0.25 mark in the pole vault is 12th best.
Aztec Honors
Tonette Dyer was named the Mountain West Conference's women's track athlete of the week for the period ending March 31st. Dyer was honored after she competed in four events at the Cal-Nevada Championships and NCAA provisionally qualified in three of those contests (4x100 relay, 4x400 relay and 400 meters). She is the second Aztec to earn the honor this year, with senior Tricia Gutierrez doing so during the indoor season.
Vaulting To Success
Freshman Shayla Balentine recorded her seventh NCAA provisional qualifying mark of the season in the pole vault this past weekend. Her first-place mark of 3.97 meters (13-00.25) at the Aztec Classic on March 23 was her fourth NCAA provisional vault in as many meets and tied her best this season. The 13-00.25 mark places her second all-time in SDSU's record book. The mark also puts her atop the Mountain West Conference's list of bests in the event this season. Included in her four-meet NCAA mark streak is winning the MWC's indoor title at the league championships in February with a MWC record vault of 3.84 meters (12-07.50). Earlier in the indoor season she set the SDSU indoor record in the vault with a 3.90 meter (12-09.50) mark at the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno.
On Pace
Melinda Smedley has placed no lower than third in the 200-meter dash this season. Her second-place finish of 24.24 at the Aztec Invitational broke a streak of three-straight first-place marks, including a win in an impressive field at the Trojan Classic on March 2. She also has a trio of second-place clockings in the 100 meters. Her personal season-best of 11.83 in the 100 came at the UNLV Desert Classic.