April 26, 2005
SAN DIEGO -
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Aztecs Travel North To Compete At Steve Scott Invitational In Irvine
• The San Diego State track and field team gets back to competition this Saturday at the Steve Scott Invitational in Irvine, Calif.
• Field events get underway at UC Irvine, beginning at 10 a.m. with the women's javelin. The steeplechase is the first event scheduled on the track with the women's steeple slated to begin at 10:20 a.m. The final women's event of the day, the 4x400, starts at 5:05 p.m.
• The meet is named in honor of UCI graduate Steve Scott, the American record-holder in the mile and a three-time Olympian. Currently the head track coach at Cal State San Marcos, Scott was a six-time All-American in track and cross-country at UCI.
• Sunday's competition will be the squad's eighth meet of the its first nine in the state of California. The last time the Aztecs traveled outside the state was March 24-26 in Gainesville, Fla., when the majority of the meet was cancelled due to excessive rain and thunderstorms. SDSU heads to Los Angeles next week for the Oxy Invitational (May 7), followed by the MWC championships (May 11-14), which will take place in Fort Collins, Colo.
Rewind: Heron Earns Team's Lone Title At UCSD's Triton Invitational
• Heather Heron (Yakima, Wash.) won the 100-meter hurdles to lead the San Diego State track and field team at UC San Diego Triton Invitational in La Jolla, Calif., on Saturday.
The senior won the event with a time of 13.67 seconds, her second-fastest time of the year, and was also the Aztecs' top finisher in the 100 (ninth place, 12.27 seconds) and 200 (12th, 25.24). She later teamed with senior Tori Respass-Parsons (Hayward, Calif.), and freshmen Brittani Dudley (Oakland, Calif.) and Sherraine Pencil (Toronto) for a second-place time of 47.37 in the 400-meter relay.
• Junior Nicole Carmier (Elk Grove, Calif.) bettered her time in the 800, running a personal-time of 2:10.20 to place second among 59 entrants. The time is the ninth-fastest in SDSU's history.
• Sophomore Janine Polischuk (Regina, Saskatchewan) took third in both the 400-hurdles (season-best 1:01.98) and javelin (122 feet, five inches), while freshmen Monica Pacas (Atascadero, Calif.) and Christin Shibley (Panorama, Calif.) tied for fourth in the pole vault after clearing 12-2. The mark was a seven-inch personal-best vault by Shibley.
• Other top-five finishes on the day went to senior Marie Nilsson (Kil, Sweden) in the 3,000 (third, 10:09.77), junior Christian Fairing (Irvine, Calif.) in the 3,000 (fifth, 10:40.22), and Jennifer Greene (San Diego) in the triple jump (fifth, 37-11 ½).
Flashback: 2004 Steve Scott Invite
• A week off from competition did not seem to faze San Diego State's Tonette Dyer, as she recorded the world's fastest time by a woman in 2004 in the 200 meters of 22.34 at last year's Steve Scott Invitational in Irvine, Calif.
Dyer's previous best in the event was 22.96, then a school and conference record, which she posted at the Sea Ray Relays in Knoxville, Tenn., three weeks before.
Dyer's time easily gave her a third-straight 200-meter title in as many chances at the Steve Scott Invitational, as runner-up, Great Britain's Donna Fraser, who was fourth in the 400 meters at the 2000 Olympics, came in 0.71 seconds behind her in 23.05. • The highlights kept coming for Dyer as she also beat her own school and conference record in the 100 meters, finishing first in 11.29. The time was 0.13 seconds better than her performance of 11.42 at the Cal-Nevada championships and moves hed from 11th to 5th in the NCAA rankings last season.
• Nicole Ireland also had an outstanding meet, running a career best time of 23.30 in the 200 meters to tie for third place. Ireland's time moves her from fourth to second in the school record books and is No. 11 in the NCAA rankings in 2004.
• Other top-three finishes on the day for the Aztecs went to the 4x100 relay (1st - 45.55), Megan Schauermann in the triple jump (2nd - 39-04.00) and Heather Heron in the 100 hurdles (3rd - 13.44).
Aztecs Still Prominent In Event Rankings
• With nine meets under its belt, SDSU appears prominently in the national and regional performance lists, which shows the top times/marks so far in 2005.
Senior Shayla Balentine is the most notable performer with her 14-0 1/2 leap in the pole vault. The mark is tops in the nation among collegiate athletes, tied for fourth in the United States and tied for seventh among all world competitors. Her clear at the Azusa Pacific Meet of Champions on April 9 also set a SDSU and Mountain West Conference record.
Balentine is joined on the NCAA regional list in the pole vault by Pacas, who is ranked 10th in the region with her jump of 12-6 1/4.
Also ranked in the region are Heron (sixth in 100-hurdles, 13.59), Carmier (ninth in high jump, 5-8 3/4) and Nilsson (15th in steeplechase, 10:51.37).
Click on PDF file for complete release and season-best times/marks.