Feb. 14, 2004
SAN DIEGO - In its final tune-up before the conference championships, the San Diego State women's track and field squad won seven events, broke four school records and tallied two NCAA provisional qualifying times Saturday at the Holiday Inn Invitational, hosted by Boise State in Boise, Idaho.
Aztec All-American Tonette Dyer (Shreveport, La.) had a standout day, winning the 60, 200 and 400 meters and running a leg on the team's first-place 4x400-meter relay. Dyer provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet in two events, finishing with a school record of 23.75 in the 200 and winning the 400 in 53.96. Dyer's time in the 200-meter race beat the previous school record of 23.89 set by Darla Vaughn in 1992.
Dyer combined with teammates Larnie Boyd (Vallejo, Calif.), Nicole Ireland (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Bianca McNair (Portland, Ore.) to break the school's record in the 4x400 relay for the second straight week. The quartet finished in a time of 3:43.66, almost four seconds faster than their school record set last week in Arizona of 3:47.29.
Junior Marie Nilsson (Kil, Sweden) also shattered the school's record in the 3,000 meters, becoming the first SDSU runner to break the 10-minute barrier, completing the race in first in 9:44.80 (prev. record was 10:32.40).
San Diego native Candace Hill had the other school record on the day, besting her own career high with a throw of 48-8.25 in the shot put and finishing third overall.
Other winners on the day for the Aztecs included junior Heather Heron (Yakima, Wash.), who placed first in the 60-meter hurdles for the second-straight week, and juniors Shayla Balentine (Los Osos, Calif.) and Erin Asay (San Diego, Calif.), who tied for first in the pole vault by clearing 12-8.
The Aztecs take the next weekend off to prepare for the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships, slated for Feb. 26-28 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Complete results available at: http://www.broncosports.com/articles/files/2004_holiday_inn_team_invite_results.pdf