The Aggies continued to break personal bests and school records this weekend.
UC Davis was split between two locations this weekend. Head coach Drew Wartenburg headed to the Mt. SAC Relays with some of the top Aggie competitors while the other athletes stayed in Davis to compete in the traditional Picnic Day Woody Wilson Memorial Classic.
Track standouts seniors Jonathan Peterson and Sarah Sumpter continued to make headlines for the Aggies with their performances at Mt. SAC.
Peterson became the first Aggie in school history to break the 14-minute mark in the 5,000m. He entered Friday’s meet with a personal best time of 14:03.25 and he cut that down to 13:54.25, earning him 11th place overall in the event.
Fellow star Sumpter was only challenged by fellow Aggie sophomore Alycia Cridebring in the 5,000m and the pair combined for a one-two finish in the race. Sumpter raced across the finish line first, shaving almost five seconds off her personal best time. Cridebring was right on her heels to finish in 16:30.23, earning her second place on Friday and fourth place on the all-time Aggie list.
Sprinter Melanise Chapman was another highlight for UC Davis this weekend. She started her day with the 100m where she finished in 11th place. She moved onto the 200m where she neared her personal record, clocking a 24.13 and placing 20th overall.
Wartenburg was impressed with Chapman’s runs this week.
“Melanise sparked the group with two very good races … exactly the type of racing we look for at meets like Mt. Sac.”
Sophomore Nathan Strum rounded out the track portion of the meet with a season-best finish in the 800m. His time of 1:51.37 was enough to earn him fifth place in his section.
Senior Ethan Ostrum headed the Aggies in the field. The pole vaulter has been impressive over the last few weeks and he continued to perform. Ostrum cleared 4.95m, just a hair off of his clearance from last week, and placed ninth place overall.
Fellow senior and pole vaulter Lauren Radke placed fifth overall after clearing 3.70m.
Meanwhile, the other portion of the team remained in Davis for the Woody Wilson Memorial Classic and the Aggies put on a show for their fans, winning a total of seven events.
The last home meet of the season drew Picnic Day crowds, and the spectators were lucky enough to see junior Emily Bush set a new school record in the pole vault, soaring over 4.02m to bring home the win for UC Davis.
Bush was joined in the winner’s circle by six of her fellow Aggies including freshman Raquel Lambdin, who won the 1,500m run. Sophomore Hilary Teaford claimed first place in the 5,000m and fellow sophomore Courtney Crosta won the 3,000m steeplechase. Freshman Katie Barber won the high jump, closing out the event victories for the women.
The men claimed their victories from senior Igor Seriba, who won the triple jump and the 4X400m relay which won with a time of 3:16.92.
The Aggies will look to use this momentum in the coming weeks as they close out their season.
KIM CARR can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
