Men’s and women’s track and field teams headed to UC San Diego for the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships this past weekend.
The meet was a tune-up for the Broncos, as in just a couple weeks, they will head to Kingsville, Texas, for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II Championships.
“It was an up and down meet. We started Saturday off with a DQ and a DF (did not finish) in both 4×100,” head coach Chris Bradford said. “It was a rough start, but they fought back well and took advantage of their opportunities and the momentum just kept on rolling.”
The men’s track team finished second as a team with 160 points total, just squeaking by UC San Diego by two points.
The Broncos finished in third in last year’s California Collegiate Athletic Association.
Thirteen Broncos finished in the top three, giving them a spot on the podium. Sophomore Kaelin Moore finished first in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.07 seconds, just beating his teammate, freshman Ryan Fields, who finished second with a time of 52.11 seconds. Moore improved his NCAA provisional qualifying mark which is the ninth best time in Division II this season.
“His season started a little rough and (he) had high expectations coming in,” Bradford said. “He kept working at it and improving every week and he came out and became a conference champion twice this weekend.”
Moore and Fields were also on the men’s 4×400 relay team along with senior Keeon Thomas and freshman Nicholas Guajardo, who finished first to help give the Broncos second in the overall standings.
Fields also finished third in the 110-meter hurdles, just beating junior teammate Kyle Lawson. Fields finished top three in all of the events that he had competed in, earning him CCAA Freshman of the Meet.
“He had a heck of a day with finishing second in the 400 hurdles with a top 10 time nationally and to be part of that, winning 4×400 to clinch the second-place finish at the end was great for him,” Bradford said.
Six different Broncos finished second in their respective events.
The team earned a total of 13 medals at the event.
On the women’s side, senior Casey Monoszlay dominated in her two events she ran, as she was the first Bronco on both teams to win his/her event.
Right from the start of her 1500-meter race, Monoszlay took the lead and didn’t look back as she demolished her competition. Monoszlay did the same thing a couple of hours later as she took the 5,000 meters as well. Freshman Ana Tovi continued her success in the discus as she finished third in the event. Junior Nia Vance finished third in two of her events in the 100-meter hurdles and also the triple jump.
Sophomore Zaria Francis in the 100 meters and senior Lorraine Fernandez in the 10,000 meters finished third in their events. Just like her twin brother, Ayana Fields earned CCAA Freshman of the Meet honors as she finished third in the 200 meter and fourth in the 400 meters.
Fields improved her provisional marks in both events.
“She has done it all year and for just being a freshman, she has been rock solid and performed every time we need her to,” Bradford said.
The team finished fifth overall out of 13 teams that competed.
Broncos earned a total of eight medals at the meet. For the final meet before NCAA Championships, the Broncos will head to Los Angeles for the Oxy Invitational next week. Only a couple of athletes will head to the invitational to try and improve provisional times.
