UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara
Cal Poly Wins Seven Events at Season-Opening Big West Double Dual
3/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Cal Poly combined to win seven individual events Saturday at UC Riverside Track and Field Stadium, earning a team split on both halves of the season-opening Big West Double Dual against the Highlanders and UC Santa Barbara.
Mustang sophomore thrower Arnie Sambel led the way with two victories, claiming the shot put at 54 feet, 10.75 inches (bettering his PR by more than 5 feet) and the discus at 167-11 (a similar improvement, by 7-6).
Also for the men, Cal Poly scored first-place points thanks to:
- Ben Hartinger, so. — 110-meter hurdles (at 14.45 seconds, edging second-place teammate Kevin Staniszewski's 14.79; his time cut three-hundredths off his 2014 best, and now ranks No. 5 all-time at Cal Poly)
- Danny Shellworth, so. — high jump (6-6.75, another PR)
In all, they led the way to a 93-83 win over UCR, but were topped 99-78 by the Gauchos.
Cliff Lekas, Trevor Lien, Amir Bradley and David Namnath combined to run the 1,600 relay in 3:14.04. While second, it surpassed the squad's fastest time from all of last spring (3:15.50). Bradley, a sophomore, also nearly eclipsed his team-best 400 from 2014 (47.87), earning runner-up status Saturday at 47.98.
The meet also featured some impressive early-season 1,500 performances, as junior Nick Woolf's fourth-place 3:49.42 was just five-hundredths off of the 2014 team pinnacle.
On the women's side, the Mustangs picked up wins from:
- Daijah Joe-Smith, so. — in the 100-meter dash (at 11.81 seconds)
- Mallory Patino, so. — 400 hurdles (a career-best 1:01.86, ranking No. 10 in program history)
- Kendal Nielsen, jr. — triple jump (40-8.25, also a PR; the quarter-inch margin helped take the place of her own fifth-farthest mark in Mustang history from 2013)
They helped down UCSB 94-84, but fell 95-78 to the Highlanders.
While coming in third in the shot put, freshman Kiely Osby posted a mark of 46-0.75, 10th-best in school history during outdoor competition.
Complete results can be viewed HERE.
The Mustangs will next visit Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis for the Fresno State Twilight Challenge on Tuesday, March 24, before returning home to host the Cal Poly/ShareSLO Invitational from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 28.
