Competing with over 1,000 athletes from around the country, including a slew of ranked teams and the occasional Olympian, the UC Davis men’s track team put forth a strong showing at its second of two indoor meets this season.
“We had a really good meet,” coach Jon Vochatzer said. “If I were to compare it to the meet from two weeks ago, I’d say we were a shade ahead of last time. We picked it up a big notch.“
As was the case two weeks ago, sophomore Jonathan Peterson had the performance of the day, breaking his new school record in the 3,000m by clocking it at 8:13.90, good for eighth in his section.
“It’s definitely a starting point,” Peterson said. “To come out and get that time right off the bat makes me feel pretty good. I felt good about my race, but I know there’s always better to do.“
In addition to Peterson, junior Russ Pfaff also competed in the 3,000m, albeit in a different heat than Peterson. Pfaff clocked 8:22.18, putting him beyond only Peterson on the all-time list.
“I think it’s a good start, but there’s definitely a lot more in the future,” Pfaff said. “Hopefully it should be an exciting year. Records are going to go down in a bunch of events. Not only me, but other guys on the team.“
Besides for the 3,000m, the 400m all-time list was also affected as sophomore Thomas Phillips ran a 49.01 to move to the No. 5 spot.
Phillips then went on to run a leg on the Aggies‘ 4x400m relay team, which finished at 3:17.75. The team finished directly ahead of Big West Conference member UC Riverside and nearly two seconds ahead of Sacramento State. The other members of the relay were Nolan Frazier, Micah Grant and Ray Green.
“We went 3:17, a real good time for this time of the year,” Vochatzer said. “For Ray Green it was the first time he’s ever run a long relay. His eyeballs were like huge. First time he’s ran a quarter. He was a long jumper and triple jumper in high school, but he’s going to become a real force for us in the 200m and long relay too.“
Though there was plenty of success indoors, for most, indoors is just a way to get ready for outdoors, the main part of the season. The Aggies will debut with their multi-eventers at Chico State on Mar. 5 and 6, with the majority of the Aggies opening up at UC Berkeley in a quandrangular on Mar. 7.
But first, the Aggies will host their Blue-Gold intrasquad this Saturday at Toomey Field.
ALEX WOLF-ROOT can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
