Feb. 8, 2003
SAN DIEGO - In its first meet at full strength, the San Diego State track and field team came away with one school record and 10 top-five finishes Saturday at the 2003 Mountain T's Invitational in Flagstaff, Ariz. SDSU was one of 18 universities and 15 track clubs, which combined to make up over 700 individual competitors at the J.L. Walkup Skydome on the campus of Northern Arizona University.
"I was really impressed with our performance today, especially with the fact that we were at altitude and it was our first meet of the season," SDSU assistant coach Jennifer Nanista said. "We accomplished what we set out to do in the first place. Everyone stepped up and I think we are a little better than where we were at this time last year.
The highlight of the meet for the Aztecs came in the pole vault competition as sophomore Shayla Balentine (Los Osos, Calif.) cleared a school-record 12-10 (3.91m), to also provisionally qualify her for the NCAA indoor championships. Balentine beat the previous school record of 12-9 ?, which she held with former teammate Patricia Gutierrez.
Balentine wasn't the only Aztec to do well in the field events, as pole vaulter Julie Hudlow (San Diego, Calif.) posted a personal best mark of 11-2 to rank her sixth in school history and junior Candace Hill (San Diego, Calif.) also had a personal best of 53-1 ? in the weight throw, which was good for fifth place.
In the running events, San Diego State came away with four, top-five finishes. Freshman Jamillah Titus (American Canyon, Calif.) had the team's highest finish of the day with a second place in the open division of the 400-meter dash, crossing the line with a time of 57.6.
Junior transfer Nicole Ireland (Las Vegas, Nev.) and junior Tonette Dyer (Shreveport, La.) each tallied top-five finishes in two different events. Ireland was third in the 200-meter dash (24.49) and fifth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.67), while Dyer had a pair of fifth-place finishes at both 60 (7.66) and 200 meters.
The Aztec 4x400-meter relay of Dyer, senior Jini Hogg (San Francisco, Calif.), Ireland and freshman Bianca McNair (Portland, Ore.) rounded out the top-five finishers with a third place time of 3:54.96.
The San Diego State track and field squad continues its indoor season by traveling to the University of Washington on Feb. 15, for its final tune-up prior to the Mountain West Conference indoor championships in Colorado Springs, Colo., Feb. 27- March 1.