UC Davis’ men and women’s track and field teams displayed strong performances on Saturday at Sacramento State.
UC Davis ended the week with a solid, well-rounded performance at the Hornet Invitational with the women netting 14 top-five finishes, while the men added a dozen.
Samantha Kearney won the steeplechase to boost the UC Davis women and Jonathan Peterson, Sava Boyadjiev, and Ethan Ostrom posted wins in the 1500-meter run, 100, and pole vault, respectively, for the men.
“Event wins by veterans like Ostrom and Peterson,” said Aggie coach Drew Warternburg, “helped establish a positive, early season tone.”
Kearney won the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:21.66 — beating Southern Oregon athlete Jesse Rozario, by 11 seconds. Alycia Cridebring had a career-best mark 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:46:36 — good for seventh on the program’s all-time chart.
Strong showings by Melanise Chapman and Boyadjiev in short sprints, as well as consistent efforts by Ashley Hearn and Brandon Greenberg in the throws cadre added to the success of the UC Davis.
Hearn participated in the hammer throw and finished fifth with a mark of 53.44 meters, just three inches shy of her career-best marked at the Aggie Open last week.
Greenberg was second in the shot put at 16.12 meters, improving his rank to No. 10 on the career leaders list.
Other top-five showing by the women included efforts by Katie Fry in the 5000-meter, the relay team of Kellie Grigg, Kayla Carter, Alana Babers and Tonie Williams in the 4 x 100-meter, and Chapman in the 100-meter.
The Aggie men posted five runner-up placings from Karl Moran in the 400-meter hurdles, Igor Seriba in the triple jump, Robert Neely in the long jump and Greenburg, Benjamin Parodi and Kalo Sena in the shotput.
The Aggies will commence their two-week break and will return to action on March 31 at the Fresno State Invitational.
“The break is a time when athletes will take care of finals and then return to practice for events in April,” Wartenburg said. “It will be a short time to catch our breath.”
VEENA BANSAL can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
