In a sport where a tenth of a second matters, the UC Davis track team has blown through previous records by leaps and bounds. Just last weekend at the Sun Angel Classic in Tempe, Ariz., the records for the 100-, 200- and 800-meter sprints were completely demolished.
The Aggies did well in a wide array of events in Arizona. One of the standouts of the event was sophomore sprinter Ashley Marshall, as she broke two UC Davis records. She now owns the women’s 100-meter record by posting a blazing time of 11.55 seconds. Furthermore, she beat the 200-meter record which she previously set, by running a personal and school-best time of 23.54 seconds.
Marshall was not the only one who did well in Arizona, as senior Lauren Wallace’s time of 2:04.89 beat the previous women’s 800-meter record of 2:07.91. Both Wallace and senior Shanie Landen broke the old record. In fact, Landen broke the record running 2:07.87 in an earlier race last Sunday, only to have her record broken by Wallace later that day.
The men also posted some impressive results, as sophomore Trevor Ehlenbach placed second in the 800-meter with a time of 1:51.37. Sophomore Ben Parodi placed third in shot put and freshman Matthew Bender finished third in discus.
“The core of our travel squad rose to the occasion and created another slate of outstanding performances,” said head coach Drew Wartenburg. “Today represents another good step forward in building toward the type of dynamic we hope to have late in the season.”
The Aggies hope to ride this wave of record-breaking success into the Mondo Invitational which will be held at Sacramento State’s facilities. The events include the standard sprinting events, such as the 100-, 200- and 400-meter sprints as well as hurdles and distance events. The field events include shot put, discus and the jumping events.
The Mondo Invitational is an invitation-only meet which means that only select schools will be in attendance over the weekend. The list of schools participating in this event include Brigham Young University, Fresno State, Portland State, UC Davis and the host school Sacramento State.
UC Davis has had fairly good success in the Mondo Invitational, as last year, both men’s and women’s teams placed third in overall team rankings. The highlights of last year’s event include senior Melanise Chapman placing second in the 100-meter and third in the 200-meter with times of 11.79 and 24.51 respectively.
For the men, junior Hosea Tate and sophomore Jason Chandler finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 200-meter dash. Tate ran a 21.85 and Chandler ran a 21.89.
“Those athletes performing at the highest level are feeding off their success and that of those around them,” Wartenburg said. “That makes for an exciting environment in which to coach, train and compete.”
The Aggies have run at an exceptional level in the past few meets. As a result, they head into the Mondo Invitational with a fairly high amount of confidence in their abilities. With a few days to rest up and get ready for the invitational, which starts on Thursday, the UC Davis track team should be ready for another solid performance.
KENNETH LING can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
