March 19, 2008
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Track and Field Weekly Release in PDF Format
Looking at the Week
With the indoor track and field season in the rearview mirror, San Diego State will focus solely on the outdoor season beginning with Saturday's Trojan Invitational at Loker Stadium on the campus of the University of Southern California.
The one-day event will begin at 9 a.m. PDT with the javelin throw and will conclude at 4 p.m. with the 4x400-meter relay.
After resting key athletes at the San Diego City Championships two weeks ago and having two of its main point-scorers at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships last weekend, the Trojan Invitational will serve as the first full-squad meet of the outdoor season for the Aztecs.
Next weekend, San Diego State will travel to Fresno, Calif., to defend its title at the prestigious Cal-Nevada Championships, set for March 28-29.
Aztecs Earn All-America Honors
Last weekend, San Diego State sent senior Karoline Koehler and sophomore Stephanie Bagan to Fayetteville, Ark., for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and they certainly did not disappoint.
Koehler, who entered the triple jump competition with the 13th-best mark in Division I, finished in third place with an effort of 44 feet, 8.25 inches.
The All-America performance was a new personal record and broke her own school record of 43-5.00 set her last time out at the Mountain West Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships. What is more impressive is the fact that she posted her third-place distance on her last jump after committing a foul on two of her previous three attempts. Going into the final attempt, her longest jump was 43-4.25. If she had not jumped farther than that, she would have finished in 11th place.
Bagan, meanwhile, joined Koehler as an All-American after she finished in eighth place in the pole vault with a clearance of 13-5.25.
One year after finishing in 14th place with a vault of 13-1.50, Bagan returned to the site and improved upon her performance and placing to become the second San Diego State pole vaulter in the last three years, joining Erin Asay, to earn indoor track and field All-America honors.
Koehler and Bagan are just the second and third SDSU athletes in the history of the program to earn indoor track and field All-America accolades.
More Notes from Indoor Nationals
San Diego State logged its best-ever finish at the national indoor meet after it earned 6.33 points to finish in 33rd place among 63 scoring schools.
Koehler earned the Aztecs six points after placing third in the triple jump, while Bagan recorded 0.33 points after tying Oregon's Melissa Gergel and UCLA's Tori Anthony for eighth place in the pole vault.
SDSU's final team rank was tops among all MWC schools after Brigham Young came in 46th with four points and TCU in 56th with just two points. Air Force also competed but did not score.
With Bagan being named an All-American, San Diego State's total for All-American pole vaulters increases to four (1999-Aimee Crabtree, 2005-Shayla Balentine, 2006-Erin Asay). The Aztecs now stand in third place behind Arkansas (6) and UCLA (5) for most individual All-Americans in Division I pole vaulting.
Let the Qualifying Begin
At its one and only home meet of the season, the Aztec Track and Field Classic, San Diego State began securing spots for the NCAA West Regional Championships with the performances of select athletes on day two of the annual event.
Senior pole vaulters Monica Pacas and Christin Shibley punched their tickets to Northridge, Calif., after they finished 1-2 among Division I competing athletes. Pacas cleared 13-0.25, while Shibley posted a height of 12-7.50 to qualify for a second straight season.
Junior Decontee Kaye guaranteed herself a spot in the triple jump field after she won the event with a qualifying mark of 41-1.50. Kaye will look to do what she did last season at regionals when she finished in second place and advanced to nationals where she became an All-American in the event.
Joining the aforementioned trio will be the SDSU's 4x100 relay team of junior Shana Solomon, senior Alicia Lowery and freshmen Alicia King and Jessika Hornsby. The quartet solidified their spot at regionals with a time of 45.60.
Last Year at the Trojan Invitational
Last year at the Trojan Invitational, San Diego State posted four NCAA regional qualifying efforts and won one event in the non-scoring meet.
Karoline Koehler won the long jump with the second-best performance in school history, 20-4.50, which also qualified her for the regional meet. Koehler also ran the anchor leg of the 4x100 relay, which finished with an NCAA regional qualifying time of 45.64.
Others to regionally qualify were Monica Pacas (pole vault; 12-6.00) and Nicole Stone (400; 54.55).