June 9, 2008
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Track and Field Weekly Release in PDF Format
Championship Week
San Diego State will take a group of five athletes to the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships to be contested at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. The national meet is set for Wednesday, June 11 and will conclude Saturday, June 14.
CBS College Sports Network (formerly CSTV) will broadcast the action live on Friday, June 13, from 5-8 p.m. PT. CBS College Sports Network can be seen in the San Diego market on Cox Cable channel 321, Time Warner 415, DirecTV 610 and DISH Network 152. Meanwhile, final-day competition (June 14) will be aired on CBS from 1-3 p.m. PT.
Making the trip to the Midwest will be a trio of first-time outdoor championship participants in junior Kristin Olafsdottir (heptathlon), sophomore Stephanie Bagan (pole vault) and freshman Briana Johnson (100 hurdles). Joining the trio will be a pair of veterans in senior Sherraine Pencil and junior Decontee Kaye. Pencil (200, 400) is slated to make her third appearance in four years and Kaye earned her second straight bid after finishing in second in the triple jump at regionals.
All Eyes on Bagan
Stephanie Bagan enters the pole vault competition atop the national performance list after clearing 14 feet, 3.50 inches (4.36m) at the NCAA West Regionals.
The Mountain West Conference and West Regional champion's performance is four centimeters better than the next-best vaulters in Arkansas' Katie Stripling and Arizona State's April Kubishta, who both go into the meet with season-best clearances of 14-2.00 (4.32m).
Despite being a newcomer to the outdoor championships, Bagan will be no stranger to the elite field as she is a two-time indoor participant, earning All-America honors earlier this season.
Welcome Back
Sherraine Pencil is making her third straight appearance at the NCAA meet with this marking the second year in a row that she has competed for a national title in the 200 and 400.
Last season, Pencil finished in 19th place in the 400 and 27th in the 200. Unfortunately, both efforts were not good enough to get her out of the preliminary round.
As a sophomore, Pencil, Nicole Stone, Brittani Dudley and Larnie Boyd earned at-large invitation in the 4x400-meter relay.
Looking for Repeat Success
Decontee Kaye will look to improve upon her successful performance from a year ago at this year's national championship in the triple jump.
In 2007, the back-to-back MWC outdoor triple jump winner posted a personal- and school-record leap of 44-4.25, to finish in fourth and earn All-America honors. With her performance, Kaye became the first All-America horizontal jumper in SDSU history.
Olafsdottir Makes the Cut
Despite falling short of a national berth in the 400 hurdles, Kristin Olafsdottir was one of 27 athletes to receive an invitation to compete in the heptathlon. The junior recorded two provisional qualifying scores during the season and got into the field with her fourth-place point total of 5,342 accomplished at the MWC Championships.
Coming on Strong
Briana Johnson has certainly come on strong as of late, having run under 14 seconds in three of her last four outings in the 100 hurdles. Prior to posting a wind-aided, preliminary time of 13.72 at the MWC Championships to qualify for regionals, Johnson has gone 14.03, 13.80 and 13.94 to end the season on a solid note.
At regionals, Johnson received all-West Region recognition after placing sixth in the finals of the event with her time of 13.94. The freshman just missed out on securing an automatic bid to nationals by finishing behind the fifth-place athlete by 0.18 seconds.
Last Time Out
The Aztecs finished in seventh place to post their second consecutive top-10 effort at the NCAA West Regionals, May 30-31, in Northridge, Calif. SDSU took 15 qualifiers and earned 42 points to become the top non-Pac-10 Conference scoring school for the second year in a row. Those to earn automatic tickets to nationals include Bagan (pole vault), Pencil (200, 400) and Kaye (triple jump).
Last Year at Nationals
Last season, San Diego State took Kaye, Pencil, Karoline Koehler, Shana Solomon and Nicole Stone to compete in seven events and as a team, the Aztec quintet finished in a tie for 46th place among 73 scoring teams.