March 17, 2007
SAN DIEGO - Four San Diego State track athletes and its 4x100 relay team qualified for the NCAA regional meet on the final day of the Aztec Invitational at SDSU Sports Deck on Saturday. Mandy Upuu, Lisa Naucler, Nicole Stone and Stephanie Bagan were among those who joined the relay team of Sherraine Pencil, Shana Solomon, Stone and Karoline Koehler in qualifying for the West Regionals.
Upuu and Naucler punched their ticket to the aforementioned regionals by taking the top two spots in the 800-meter run. Upuu, who went undefeated in the event until turning in a runner-up performance at the conference championships during the indoor season, finished first with a personal-best time of 2 minutes, 9.16 seconds. Naucler, meanwhile, was just tenths of a second behind Upuu, clocking in with a time of personal-low time of 2:09.36.
Bagan continued her storybook freshman campaign in her first outdoor meet as an Aztec. The Granite Bay, Calif., native finished in a tie for first with teammate Dana Van Wagner after winning the MWC indoor title in February and competing in the NCAA Indoor Championships last week. Both Bagan and Van Wagner cleared 12 feet, 6.25 inches to finish atop the leaderboard. For Van Wagner, her effort marks the second straight week in which she has set a regional qualifying vault.
Lastly, Stone secured her spot for the regional meet in Oregon by coming in third place in the 400 with a time of 54.48. She and the rest of the 4x100 relay posted a time of 45.57 to finish second and will compete for the opportunity to advance to the NCAA Championships in May.
In addition to Upuu and Naucler setting personal-best times, Pencil established a new best in the 100 (11.81) while placing fourth overall and first among collegiate athletes. Jackie Duncan and Linsday Barajas also turned in lifetime bests with 800 times of 2:14.27 and 2:19.96, respectively.
Other winners on the day for San Diego State included Shana Watson (100 open, 12.25; long jump, 19-0.00), Kristin Olafsdottir (100 hurdles, 1:01.19) and Decontee Kaye (triple jump, 40-1.25).
The Aztecs will return to the track on March 24 as they travel to Los Angeles for the Trojan Invitational beginning at 9 a.m. PDT.