SAN DIEGO – Coming off a runner-up finish at the Mountain West Indoor Championships last weekend, the San Diego State track and field team kicks off the outdoor season Friday at the Ben Brown Invitational in Fullerton, California. The Aztecs will send nine mid-distance and distance runners to compete in the AstroAi Distance Classic, which is a part of the Ben Brown Invite, at the Titan Track Complex.
SDSU will have Isabella Fauria, Lauren Harper and Sara Jones will double in the 800 and 1,500 meters, while Tatum Zinkin is entered in just the 800. Four others - Presley Bennett, Vanessa Cabello, Maddie Heller and Maddy Parrone - will run the 5,000 and Samantha Wood is set to compete in the 3K steeplechase.
The steeplechase begins the day for San Diego State at 4:30 p.m. PT, followed by the 1,500 at 5:20 p.m. PT, 5K at 7:20 p.m. PT and 800 at 9 p.m. PT.
The indoor season isn’t complete yet for two Aztecs as both Shaquena Foote and Jenna Fee Feyerabend qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships, set for March 14-15 at the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Foote made it in the 400, while Feyerabend qualified in the pentathlon.
Foote and Feyerabend were two of six SDSU student-athletes who earned all-conference accolades on Wednesday, including double gold medalist Foote (200 and 400 meters), and other gold medalists Feyerabend (pentathlon), Hannah Waller (long jump) and Charlize James (60-meter hurdles), along with Jada Pierre (60 hurdles) and Sophia Wolf (800). The six led San Diego State to a runner-up finish at the meet with 107 points, only trailing championships host New Mexico (136.5).
Foote first captured the 400 in dominating fashion with a time of 51.48 seconds. It was a Mountain West record and indoor program. She won the event by 1.10 seconds over the second-place finisher and took the indoor gold for a second consecutive season.
Foote then took down the 200 with a time of 22.89, the second-fastest indoor 200 in school history. For her efforts, Foote was named the MW Track Performer of the Meet.
Feyerabend, meanwhile, won the pentathlon on Thursday with 4,183 points, the second-highest point total of her career.
In the long jump, Waller bested the field with a leap of 6.38 meters (20 feet, 11 ¼ inches), which was a collegiate best and the second-best indoor mark in program history. The jump came on her fourth attempt.
James, meanwhile, won her first career MW indoor championship, taking the 60-meter hurdles in 8.24 seconds.
Pierre came in second in the 60 hurdles behind James in 8.32, the ninth-fastest time in school history, and Wolf was second in the 800 in 2:09.22.
In their five indoor meets so far, San Diego State set two school records (400 and 800) along with 14 other top-10 marks in the record books. Twenty-six (26) student-athletes that competed at any point during the season set an indoor personal best across 43 events.
Following the NCAA Indoor Championships, SDSU plays host to the Aztec Invitational (March 21-22) and the Shelia Burrell Aztec Heptathlon/Decathlon (March 27-28) in consecutive weekends.
Aztecs Send Distance Contingent to Fullerton
Nine Aztecs set to run events from the 800 to 5,000 on Friday.
