On a day when the wind was threatening to wreak havoc on the track, the triple jumpers had it good, with Aggies taking the top three spots.
“The field was dynamite,” said coach Jon Vochatzer. “In the triple jump Ray Green went [15.08m], which is a nice jump for him. Behind him was Igor Seriba with a [14.80m] and Tolu Wusu at [14.68m].“
In the 110m hurdles, school-record holder Polly Gnepa torched the field, clocking 14.39, well ahead of the second-place time of 14.91. This comes only one week after Gnepa qualified for the West Regional championships, thanks to his 14.28 in Berkeley.
The Aggies‘ other win of the day came in the 1,500m, with Jonathan Sees clocking 3:53.78 to win by over a full second.
“I was happy with the place, a little disappointed with the time,” Sees said. “But time will come. I thought it was going to be a really fast race, hoping to go like 61-61-61, but we came back in like 65, so then it became a race for place.
“I started going with 300m to go, but that’s not what I wanted to do. The dude was coming out back and I was like, ‘Dude, I got to go.‘ He started to drop and I was like, ‘I can’t let him go now.‘”
The other Aggie track highlight came in the men’s 400m, where sophomore Thomas Phillips clocked a 47.80 to take third. While this was only his first open 400m in an Aggie uniform, his time put him third on UC Davis‘ all-time list.
“The plan was to get some speed work in with the 400m,” Phillips said. “I didn’t know what to expect to be honest, since I hadn’t run it in so long. I was definitely hoping for a sub 48. It’s up to the coaches, but I would definitely be up for running some more.“
Phillips also anchored the first Aggie 4x400m relay of the season, which took second in 3:14.47.
“It was nice doing the 4×4 and being anchor, because, again, it’s been a while,” Phillips said. “It was a good time to open up our season with.“
The Aggies also put forth a solid performance in both vertical jumps. Ben Nelson took third in the high jump at 1.98 with Ross Tate in fifth with the same height. In the pole vault, freshman Ethan Ostrom cleared 4.86m for second, with Joey Farkash and Daniel Turvey tying for third at 4.71m.
“We got some good pole vaulters,” Sees said. “We got some good throwers out there and some amazing jumpers, that’s got to be said. We got an amazing team.“
ALEX WOLF-ROOT can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
