By Elizabeth Teo, April 9, 2024
Cal Poly Pomona’s men’s and women’s track and field teams shined at the Mangrum Invitational, with 14 new personal records for the women and nine NCAA provisional qualifying marks across four events for the men.
In just a single-day meet, the women found themselves with 14 personal records broken in the 500-meter, steeplechase, 1500-meter run and 800-meter run, with Alondra Arias coming at 2:12.77. Now, she is part of CPP’s top 10 in the 800.
The two women’s 4×100-meter relay teams also made a splash, with Jaelyn Thomas, Yuna Queniat, Susie Fowler and Ayana Fields coming in at 46.58 seconds and Ekene Onwaeze, Lorenzo Boyd, Joshua Johnson and Colin Quinn at 40.45, both earning provisional qualifying marks.
Assistant coach Darrell Smith reflected on the week’s developments, emphasizing the team’s commitment to continual improvement.
“There were a lot of individual breakthroughs in terms of performance and seeing overall progress during this meet,” said Smith.
Making their presence known, the men’s team came up strong as well, clinching the win in the 4×100, pole vault, 400-meter dash, and 110-meter hurdles with 11 top-three finishes.
Ryan Fields returned strong after a hamstring injury, posting times of 14.20 in the 110 hurdles and 51.06 in the 400-meter hurdles, both with provisional marks. Fields expressed satisfaction with his performance, describing it as the fastest race and start after his injury.
“It was a really great start for the season with a really great opening time and the fastest opener I have ever had,” said Fields.
Teammate Alessio Sommacal broke his record in the 400 hurdles, finishing close behind Fields at 51.33, now ranking among the top 10 in CPP history.
The women’s team achieved top-three finishes in 18 events, highlighted by Aynna Fields’ first-place finish in the 200-meter dash. She earned a provisional mark and established herself as the leading runner nationally in the event.
Shona Christensen similarly delivered strong performances, securing second place in the hammer throw and shot put, while Cynthia Hurtado followed closely behind with a third-place finish in the shot put.
In addition to personal records, the Broncos attained high scores, with Jaeden Correa claiming first place in the pole vault in addition to second-place finishes from Boyd in the 100, Johnson in the 200 and Camden Patterson in the 400.
The women also had solid second-place finishes from Ari Milton in the 100, Tianna Jardstrom in the 400 hurdles as well as a third-place finish from Isabelle Carreon in the pole vault.
With a pair of solid performances from the Mangrum Invitational and the concurrent Aztec Invitational under their belts, the teams now hope to continue to up their game, with Smith commenting that the team is even better than they seem and will perform even better if they focus on strengthening their confidence.
Feature image courtesy of CPP Athletics