From LBSU reports
The Long Beach State track and field team has a busy week ahead as it will compete in three different meets over the weekend in its final tune-ups before the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation indoor championships (Feb. 27-28).
On Friday, Feb. 13, a group of 49ers will head to the Riverside College Invitational, which gets underway at 2 p.m. In addition, LBSU will have a contingent of athletes in Seattle, Wash., for the Husky Classic beginning at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday (Feb. 14). The Beach will also take part in the University of Washington Indoor Open on Sunday, Feb. 15, with both the track and field events starting at 8 a.m.
Over 50 college teams and more than 1,000 athletes will be competing in the Husky Classic on Friday. The first running events are scheduled for 7:30 a.m., while the field events are set to begin at 10 a.m. One of the premier indoor track meets, the Husky Classic annually produces some of the fastest times in the nation, with 14 NCAA automatic qualifying times and 98 provisional marks established last year.
The UW Indoor Open, which is also a one-day event, will start at 8 a.m. with the men’s long jump and 60-meter hurdles, and will conclude with the men’s 4x400m relay at approximately 3 p.m. Both the Husky Classic and UW Open will be held at Dempsey Indoor.
A young Long Beach State group put together a number of solid marks in the non-scoring dual meet with Riverside Community College last year. In the women’s sprint events, Ejiro Okoro and Denise Nunez had a 1-2 finish in the 60-meter dash, while Nunez also took the top spot in the 1000-meter run. Two-sport athlete Kristen Kiefer, who has been sidelined this season with a hamstring injury, finished ahead of the pack in the 60m hurdles. On the men’s side, Alex Freitas was a double-winner in the mid-distances, taking both the 600 and 1000m runs. Ed Cornell added a second-place showing in the discus.
The Beach had eight individual first-place finishes to go along with 33 season and lifetime bests at the NAU Team Challenge in Flagstaff, Ariz., last Saturday. The 49ers did not send any distance runners, but the men still swept the quad meet, while the women won two out of three.
Seniors Brent Gray (60m, 200m) and Collin Cram (pole vault, long jump) led the men with two first-place finishes each. Gray bettered his school record set last year in the 60m with a mark of 6.75. Sophomore Christopher Lawson, meanwhile, finished ahead of the pack in the 60-meter hurdles, and junior Alex Black claimed the high jump. On the women’s side, freshman B.J. Triplett won the 60-meter dash and senior Miia Mobley was the top performer in the triple jump with a leap of 39-09.25.
Senior captains Brent Gray and Katie Black have both completed their outdoor eligibility, but are competing in their final collegiate indoor season. Last year, Gray became the first back-to-back Big West Athlete of the Year in conference history after winning four events at the championship meet. Gray is also the reigning indoor Mountain Pacific Sports Federation champion in the 200m. Black, meanwhile, is a two-time Big West qualifier in both the javelin and heptathlon. She currently ranks eighth all-time at LBSU in the latter event (4,337 points).
The 49ers will take a week off from competition as they prepare for the MPSF Indoor Championships, which will be held at Dempsey Indoor, Feb. 27-28.