<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
From LBSU reports<\/span><\/p>\n 2009 Men’s Track & Field Preview<\/b><\/p>\n The Long Beach State men’s track and field team has its sights set on a second consecutive Big West Conference championship. Despite the loss of several key athletes to graduation, the 49ers, who have claimed two of the last three league titles, have high expectations for the 2009 campaign.<\/p>\n “Balance is going to be our strength again this year,” said head coach Andy Sythe, who enters his 19th year at the helm of the 49er track and field program. “We see ourselves being as effective as last season and our balanced attack puts us in a very strong position to repeat as BWC champions.”<\/p>\n The 49ers will continue to see production from their sprint group, which scored a total of 89 points at the 2008 Big West championship meet. Leading the way will be senior Austin Fowler, an NCAA Regional finalist in both the 100m and 200m. Also adding experience in the 200m and 400m events will be junior Alex Goldberg.<\/p>\n LBSU has a strong contingent of hurdlers this season. With one year of collegiate experience under his belt, Nimrod Piggee returns as one of the 49ers’ top athletes in both the 110m and 400m events. Also back for the 2009 campaign is sophomore Christopher Lawson, who was the conference runner-up in the 400m hurdles a year ago. With the addition of junior transfer Kenneth Medwood and with the help of decathletes Collin Cram and Nate Koch, The Beach will have a great amount of depth in the hurdles.<\/p>\n The jumps and multi-events have proved to be one of the most improved areas of this year’s squad. At the head of the pack is team captain Rodney Hawkins, who redshirted last season. Hawkins was a state scorer in both the long and triple jump at Long Beach City College. With the return of Cram and the additions of Koch, Medwood, Michael Vaughan and Cameron Gillett, the 49ers are in good shape in both the long and triple jump.<\/p>\n Leading the high jumpers is junior Alex Black, who was an NCAA Regional qualifier in 2008 after notching a lifetime-best 6-10.75 at the BWC championship meet.<\/p>\n Despite the loss of several of its top throwers, Long Beach State returns the 2006 Big West discus champion Ed Cornell. Cornell, who returned to the team last year after redshirting in 2007, earned a trip to the NCAA Regionals with a throw of 173-03 at the league title meet. Also returning for The Beach is Kellen Boaz and Patrick Smith, while Gabe Rodriguez and Colin Dunbar will make their 49er debuts this season.<\/p>\n Wrapping up a talented team this year is a much improved distance squad. The 49ers, who had zero returning points, went on to score 20 points at the Big West championship meet last year. LBSU’s top returnee is junior Alex Freitas, a two-time NCAA Regional qualifier in the 800m. Senior Dylan Jaedtke will provide strong leadership in his final season at The Beach, while the 49ers also bring in three viable newcomers in Raul Arcos, Bret Hasvold and Matt Maldonado.<\/p>\n \n 2009 Women’s Track & Field Preview<\/b><\/p>\n The Long Beach State women’s track and field team is on the rise. With an accomplished group of returnees and a strong incoming class, the 49ers are positioning themselves to make a run for the Big West Conference title.<\/p>\n “My philosophy is to have a balanced program where we have an effective attack,” said Sythe. “We feel there is a lot of ability in our returning group. We expect to see some strong point scoring at the Big West Championships and to advance athletes on to the Regional and NCAA Championship meets.”<\/p>\n The jumps and multi-events are shaping up to be one of the stronger areas for the 49er women. LBSU returns the Big West Conference triple jump champion in senior Miia Mobley. Mobley, who walked on in 2006, established the school record with a leap of 41-1.00 at the league title meet last year.<\/p>\n The Beach also welcomes back Big West Freshman of the Year Phylicia Johnson, who will continue her duties in the long jump and hurdles, while also adding the heptathlon to her repertoire. Last season, Johnson finished third in the conference in the long jump with a mark of 19-6.00.<\/p>\n In the high jump, the 49ers will be relying on a young, but talented group this season. Freshmen Janelle Coulter and Sara Macey both enter their first year at the collegiate level with personal bests that already exceed NCAA Regional qualifying marks. Coulter and Macey were high school state championship contenders in the high jump as seniors.<\/p>\n LBSU will also have a strong contingent of athletes in the pole vault, with Katie Crowe returning as the 49ers’ top performer from 2008. Also back for The Beach is 2007 Press-Telegram Dream Team Athlete of the Year, Katelyn Beighton, who notched a season-best 12-2.00 as a freshman. Adding depth to the event will be junior transfer Laura Faris.<\/p>\n Although one of the smaller groups, the throwers are also expecting to be a key factor in Long Beach State’s success in 2009. Leading the pack is senior Jennifer Onyeagbako, who finished one spot out of All-America honors in the discus at the 2007 NCAA Championships. Onyeagbako redshirted last year and has seen improvement in both the hammer and shot put, making her a triple threat and a strong candidate to earn conference recognition.<\/p>\n Alex Shaw is another top returnee for The Beach as she currently ranks second all-time at LBSU in the javelin. Shaw is looking to make her mark this year after just missing the NCAA Championships as a sophomore and junior.<\/p>\n Freshmen Destanie Yarbrough and Rachel Hammar will add to the mix as both are capable of scoring at the BWC championship meet. Yarbrough was a 2008 high school state finalist in the discus (140-04), while Hammar brings a personal best of 162-02 in the hammer throw.<\/p>\n The 49ers appear to be much improved in the distance events with an experienced group returning for the 2009 campaign. Leading the way will be Sarah Apgar and Missy Barclay, who both just missed NCAA Regional qualifying marks in their respective events. With the improvement of Kristina Wilson, Carly Harris, Jennifer Rodriguez and Ejiro Okoro, as well as the addition of Jessica Barnard, The Beach is expecting effective point scoring from its distance program.<\/p>\n Rounding out the squad is a young group of sprinters as the 49ers’ top returnees will be a pair of sophomore hurdlers, Phylicia Johnson and Kristen Kiefer. Both individuals were NCAA Regional qualifiers, while Johnson recorded the fastest time in the conference in the 100m hurdles (13.85).<\/p>\n Incoming freshman Ashley Campbell, who has shown a lot of improvement in her preseason training, will be a double threat in the 100m and 200m. Junior transfer B.J. Triplett will also help in both sprint events.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We can’t take credit for scribing this whole thing (that goes to the LBSU Sports Info Dept.), but we’ve got a 1,000-word plus track preview for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4858"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4858"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}