A rainy weekend for the city of Riverside turned into a sunny weekend for the UC Riverside track and field teams. The Highlanders traveled to Tempe, Arizona to compete in the Sun Angel Classic hosted by Arizona State University. On Friday, April 8, four Highlanders participated in the hammer throw. With a great overall season, ranking fourth in the nation in the indoor weight throw and holding second in last year’s Big West hammer throw, Vesta Bell competed in women’s hammer throw and placed 12th, throwing a 52.44m. The same day, Carl Nahigian threw a 57.51m, a new personal record, and took home third place for the men’s hammer throw. After a calm first day, the Highlanders prepared for a full schedule on Saturday morning.
The women started off the next day in the 100-meter hurdles. Tayler Fleming finished in 16th place with a 14.7 second time and Jazmine Harper took home 21st place with a 14.49. In the 400-meter dash, Noelle Abboud placed 13th for the women with a 56.23 and Justin Parker was 18th with a 48.43. During the women’s 100 meter dash, Camille Deadwiler placed in the top three with a 11.97. For the men’s 100 meter dash, Michael Kojin placed 22nd with a 10.94 out of 31 competitors.
Competing in the men’s 400 meter hurdles, Kenneth Grimble placed 13th out of 29 with a 53.33. The women and men both competed in the 200 meter dash. Asha Giles took home eighth place for the women with a 24.74 while Michael Kojin placed 14th with a time of 21.73. Following this event, Keisha May ran the women’s 800 meter with a time of 2:17.01 and Douglas Castro held a 1:55.02 for the men’s 800 meter.
During the long jump event, Tayler Fleming placed 11th with a 5.78m and Aman Pannu took home 13th place with a jump measuring 6.66m for the men. In the men’s triple jump, Darren Richardson Jr. placed 13th with a 13.60m jump.
Continuing the Classic, Breana Jemison (36.04m, 18th) and Wesley Braddock (45.15m, 16th) led the way for the UCR women and men respectively. During the javelin throw, Matthew Sam threw a 47.04m taking home 18th place. Then in the shot put competition, Rachel Tice (14.47m) took home fourth for the women and Wesley Braddock (15.63m) placed 12th. In the men’s 4×400 meter relay, Ethan Van Setten, Jacob Porter, Jarrade Davis and Justin Parker placed seventh out of 11 with a time of 3:17.63.
In the Premiere portion of the classic, the Highlanders participated in the women’s 800 meter run, men’s one mile and the women’s and men’s shot put competition. Cross country runners Faith Makau and Cody Jordan competed during the classic. Makau ran a 2:13.48 taking ninth place in the women’s 800 meter and Jordan ran a 4:04.44 in the men’s one mile coming in seventh. During the shot put competition, Jemison threw a 16.14m coming in ninth for the women and Nahigian placed sixth with a throw of 17.42m.
After a long weekend full of events the Highlanders will compete in the Mt. SAC Relays this upcoming Thursday, April 14 through Saturday, April 16 in the City of Walnut at 10 a.m.
