May 25, 2007
EUGENE, Ore. - The San Diego State track and field squad completed day one of the NCAA West Region Track and Field Championships on Friday at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon. Of the nine Aztecs who competed in their respective preliminary events, seven moved on to Saturday's finals.
In the first event of the day for the Aztecs, Shana Solomon competed in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash and took third place in Heat 2. The sophomore finished with a time of 11.62 seconds, setting a new personal record and qualified for Saturday's finals in the process. She also tied Darla Vaughn for fifth all-time in program history. Lastly, Solomon's preliminary effort was faster than her previous PR of 11.69 at the California Collegiate Challenge in April.
In the preliminaries of the 400, two Aztecs competed in separate heats and both qualified for the finals. Sherraine Pencil finished first in Heat 1 with a personal-best time of 53.83. The junior from Canada goes into the finals having posted the fastest time among the field and moved from 10th all-time at SDSU to seventh on the school's performance list. Minutes later in Heat 2, Nicole Stone punched her ticket to the finals after she recorded a second-place time of 54.29.
With the 800-meter run next on the schedule of events, Lisa Naucler put forth a strong showing as she earned one of two automatic berths in Saturday's final with a second-place clocking of 2:07.19. Her performance was a personal best by more than one second and is the fourth-fastest in Aztec outdoor history. Before today, Naucler's PR was 2:08.60, a time accomplished in the prelims of the Mountain West Conference Championships in May. Meanwhile, Upuu, who was in front of Naucler for most of the race, finished in third and moved on to the finals with a time of 2:07.99.
In the 400 hurdles, SDSU did not fare as well as in other events on Friday. Kristin Olafsdottir posted the team's fastest time crossing the finish line in a season-best 1:00.54 in the competition's second heat. Later in the fourth heat, Nicole Stone clocked in with a time of 1:02.18. However, both times were not good enough to get the pair into the finals.
The last of the track events had Pencil and Solomon slated for the 200 and they did not disappoint. Both of them established personal-best efforts with Pencil boasting a time of 23.71 (6th all-time at SDSU) in Heat 1 and Solomon crossing the finish line in 23.66 (5th in SDSU history). Their performances earned themselves a chance to qualify for the national meet in June.
In the only field event of the day for SDSU, Decontee Kaye just missed qualifying for nationals as she finished in seventh place with a leap of 19 feet, 11.75 inches. Karoline Koehler, unfortunately, suffered the same fate after she was credited with a ninth-place effort of 19-7.50.
The Aztecs return to Hayward Field tomorrow as they begin their day with the trials and finals of the pole vault at 12:45 p.m. PDT. Also on tap for SDSU is the triple jump trials and finals along with the finals of the 100, 200, 400, 800, 4x100 relay and the 4x400 relay. Live results can be found at goducks.com.