The UC Irvine Men’s and Women’s Track and Field teams placed in multiple events and broke records at the Challenge Cup hosted by California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) at the Titan Track Complex in Fullerton, Calif., on April 10.
The Anteaters did not place in any events until the sixth event, the women’s 100 meter hurdles, where senior Esmeray Demirbas placed fourth at the 14.41 second mark right behind Long Beach’s freshman Zamaria Mack with 14.16 seconds. This gave the Anteaters’ Women’s team their first five points of the Cup.
Despite the slow start, the Women’s team found more success in the following women’s 400 meter dash where graduate student Aoife Hernon and junior Catalina Teran overtook the top two spots to add 16 points to Irvine’s score. Hernon’s final time of 54.05 seconds broke a 35-year old school record set by Shelley Tochluk in 1991 with the time of 54.32 seconds.
The ‘Eaters’ Men’s team found success of their own in the ninth event of the Cup where senior AJ Taylor placed seventh with a time of 10.90 seconds in the men’s 100 meter dash.
As the Cup continued, the Men’s team triumphed in the men’s 400 meter hurdles with junior Roman Mendoza finishing in first place with a time of 53.21 seconds to gain nine points.
The Anteaters’ junior Sarah Ajayi finished in third place at the next event — the women’s 400 meter hurdles — with a time of 1:00.91 minutes.
The UC Irvine Men’s team continued to add to their tally in the men’s 200 meter dash as sophomore Justin Johnson placed second, senior Brandon Burns placed fifth, junior Logan Lyght placed ninth, junior Brendan Clark placed tenth and senior Matthew Irvine placed fifteenth for a total of 11 points.
For the women’s 200 meter dash, Irvine saw multiple runners place including senior Samantha Bartz in third and junior Halle Sutherland place fifth.
By the later events of the Cup, Irvine’s sophomore Duke Pascoe placed third in Men’s hammer throw and senior Deana Davis placed second in Women’s hammer throw. In both the discus throw events, the ‘Eaters’ senior Joe Duggan and senior Nyla Baker took the top spots in their respective events.
While freshman Griffin Cole and graduate athlete Darrin Campbell went back-to-back for second and third place in the Men’s javelin throw, freshman Kendall Jordan took fourth in the Women’s javelin throw.
Irvine’s senior Chimobi Onye and Duggan alongside Pascoe took second, third and fourth for Men’s shot put. In the following women’s shot put event, the Anteaters dominated the top three spots with Baker, sophomores Pinkie Schnayer and Leilah Lauifi placing for a combined 16 points.
In the pole vault events, Irvine senior Jake Reed finished in second at the 4.90 meter mark and junior Kaylee Tan finished at the 3.55 meter mark in their own events. In the next event, senior Jerry Roberts finished fifth in the men’s long jump.
Irvine also took command in the men’s triple jump with senior Kenechukwu Okonkwo earning nine points with a reach of 15.23 meters and junior Kailah McKenzie taking first place with a reach of 1.71 meters to earn nine points for the Women’s team in the high jump.
By the end of the Challenge Cup, both the Men’s and Women’s team concluded the day in fourth place with total scores of 91 points for the Men’s team and 96 points for the Women’s team.
Both Irvine’s teams will head to Walnut, Calif. Where they will compete in the Mt. SAC Relays which begin April 15.
Gissel Delgado is a Sports Staff Writer. She can be reached at gissead1@uci.edu.
Edited by Jack Fedor and Joshua Gonzales
