In the second week of the Big West Championship, UC Irvine’s Anteaters looked to defend their title and leave Long Beach, Calif. with their heads held high. The event took place at Jack Rose Track with two jam packed days of competitive spectacle from May 15-16.
May 16 was the final obstacle for UCI Women’s Track & Field team to take home all the glory and defend their crown.
The day began with a promising start as junior Giselle Rodriguez took second place in the javelin throw with a 46.50 mark. Senior Jolie Robinson’s 40.03 meter throw placed her in 10th.
In the pole vault competition, junior Alana Sugue finished sixth place with a 3.77 meter mark.
The discus throw had four UCI athletes participating. Senior Nyla Baker finished third with a 55.01 meter mark, sophomore Elisabeth Driscoll finished 12th with a 47.34 meter mark, sophomore Pinkie Schnayer in 20th at 42.13 meters and senior Nadia Combs-Mahone finished 21st with a throw of 40.45 meters.
The 4×100 relay got UCI back in the rhythm when they took first place with a time of 44.78 seconds.
Another UCI first place finish went to junior Emma Hadley as she dominated in the 1500 meter run with a time of 4:30.80.
Senior Jazzmine Davis narrowly missed first place in the 100 meter hurdles, settling for second with a 13.31 time.
Graduate student Aoife Hernon also narrowly missed a first place finish in the 400 meter run. Nonetheless, her timemark of 53.61 seconds kept UCI in the competition.
Senior Samantha Bartz and junior Halle Sutherland represented the Anteaters in the 100 meter dash, with Bartz taking a third place spot with a 11.43 timemark and Sutherland taking fourth at 11.53 seconds.
Senior Esmeray Demirbas placed second in the 400 meter hurdles, finishing at 58.65 seconds. In the same competition, junior Sarah Ajayi finished in sixth at 1:00.18.
In the 200 meter dash, the Anteater athletes once again shined as Sutherland clenched first place with a 23.24 timemark. Bartz finished with a 23.54 timemark for a fifth place finish.
The 5000 meter run had 10 UCI athletes in the competition, with junior Kaia Schmidt finishing fourth at 16:53.20, senior Makena Castillo finishing in eighth at 17:08.73, sophomore Liana Lee in 12th at 17:23.10, sophomore Anna Soares in 17th at 17:39.05, Hadley in 18th at 17:40.57, sophomore Jackie Phan in 20th at 17:45.22, freshman Kaitlin Kenney in 22nd at 17:46.58, sophomore Cynthia Herrera 24th at 17:49.56, senior Nicole Contreras in 34th at 18:33.76 and sophomore Breckyn Kornachuk in 36th at 18:39.17.
At the end of the weekend the UCI Women’s team took home the title and successfully defended their throne with 187.5 points, 61.5 points ahead of runner up Cal State Fullerton with 126 points.
Mauricio Huerta is a Sports Intern for the spring 2026 quarter. He can be reached at mauricch@uci.edu.
Edited by Jack Fedor and Elizabeth Gregg.