March 1, 2003
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State women's track and field squad put together its best-ever performance at the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo., placing second overall Saturday with 119 points. Brigham Young won the competition for the fourth straight year with 179.50 points, while Colorado State finished third with 115 at the Air Force Academy's Cadet Field House.
San Diego State held just a one-point lead, 111-110, over third place Colorado State heading into the meet's final event, the mile relay. The Aztecs, however, placed second in the event, coming in with a time of 3:47.88, while the Rams came in fourth in 3:51.75.
The Aztecs won two events on the day, tallied three NCAA provisional qualifying times and recorded another two runner-up finishes to move from third to second place in the team competition in the meet's final day. SDSU's Shanon Meyer (Hesperia, Calif.) was named Freshman of The Year, after taking fourth in the pentathlon, third in the long jump and 12th in the triple jump.
Saturday's event winners for San Diego State, included junior Tonette Dyer (Shreveport, La.) in the 60 meters and junior Nicole Ireland (Las Vegas, Nev.) in the 200 meters. Dyer won her first indoor conference title with a new school record time of 7.42, beating the previous record of 7.47, set by Promise Mose in 2000. She then etched her name in the SDSU record books again with her second-place effort of 53.51 in the 400, beating Mose's record of 54.99. Dyer's time in the 400 was also an NCAA provisional qualifying time, just one, one-hundredth off the automatic standard.
Ireland, meanwhile, also took second in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.48, and third in the 400 meters, behind Dyer, with an NCAA provisional time of 54.15. Ireland's first-place and NCAA provisional time in the 200 meters of 23.90, was just one, one-hundredth of a second off the school record, held by Darla Vaughn (1992 - 23.89).
Aztec junior Candace Hill (San Diego, Calif.) set the team's third school record on the day, placing fifth in the shot put with a throw of 48-07.50, almost three and a half feet above her previous personal best and school record of 45-01.75, which she recorded at this season's University of Washington Invitational.
Other top-five finishes on the day went to freshman Jamillah Titus (American Canyon, Calif.) in the 800 meters (3rd - 2:14.07), senior Jini Hogg (San Francisco, Calif.) in the 400 meters (5th - 55.04) and Megan Schauermann (Vancouver, Wash.) in the triple jump (5th - 38-0.00).
The Aztecs' point total of 119 was 30 more than their previous high at the Mountain West Conference indoor meet. SDSU finished third with 89 points at the inaugural MWC indoor championships in 2000 and later took eighth with eight points in 2001, and sixth with 58.50 points in 2002.