In a season filled with many ups and downs, improvement has been a satisfying constant for the Cal Poly men’s and women’s track teams.
“It’s always hard to have a perfect meet,” head coach Mark Conover said. “There are so many events and sometimes you get a little glitch. I think the men competed very strongly. Fourth place and very close to third is about what we were expecting.”
The fourth-place finish by the men’s team marks an improvement from sixth overall in 2011. UC Santa Barbara claimed the outright title with a score of 179, topping second-place Cal State Northridge by 62 points.
Junior Derek Thomas posted his season best 3:43.44 as he peaked in the 1,500 — good enough for second overall trailing only UC Davis’s Jonathan Peterson. Behind Thomas, David Cardona and Blake McDowell posted fifth- and sixth-place finishes, respectively. A time like this primes Thomas for a very likely birth into regionals.
The duo of John Prader and Kyle Inks continued to display their dominance of men’s pole vault with first- and fourth-place finishes, respectively. Prader’s mark of 17 feet, 6.5 inches not only claimed the outright conference title but also set a personal record, while Inks posted 16 feet, 10.75 inches.
“Practicing with Kyle Inks is nothing but a positive thing,” Prader said. “We usually compete at every meet. It’s awesome having that one person you are competing with. Both Kyle and I are just trying to stay healthy and we will have a very good chance at advancing to nationals.”
Team captain Eric Surprenaunt finished third overall in the 400 hurdles at 52.27, good enough to advance to regionals. Surprenaunt placed seventh in the 110 hurdles as well with a time of 14.73.
“He’s a genuine person,” Conover said. “He recognizes that it’s a privilege to be at a meet like the conference and that you earn the right to be there. He conveys that message to his teammates every practice and meet.”
In the grueling 10,000 meter, Chris Frias claimed the silver medal with a time of 31:24.80, barely falling to UC Riverside’s Chad Hall, who posted a time of 31:32.81.
Brandon Shirck set a personal record in the steeplechase with a time of 9:09.61 followed by teammate Blake Ahrold’s sixth-place finish and personal record of 9:11.71.
Jamison Jordan’s 10.64 in the 100-meter dash helped lead him to a bronze medal.
On the women’s side, UC Davis claimed the Big West Conference title with a score of 170. Cal Poly came in eighth posting a 52.5.
Conover viewed the eighth-place finish as an important stepping stone for a very youthful team whose potential is signified through a few key performers.
“The women’s team is very young, and we were hit by a few key injuries,” Conover said. “With the young group at full health and an outstanding recruiting class, we have an extremely bright future.”
Leading that group of women are freshman Lia Rivers-Birt and sophomore Jenna Davis. The two claimed third- and fourth-place in the 800 meter with personal records of 2:11.15 and 2:11.16.
Whitney Sisler, a standout forward on the women’s soccer team and known more so for her high jump abilities, claimed the long jump conference title with a distance of 19 feet, 6.5 inches, nearly 5 inches greater than the second-place finisher, Danielle Littleton of UC Riverside.
The NCAA regionals take place May 24 to 26 in Austin, Texas, where Cal Poly will battle for spots at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships held in Des Moines, Iowa. The seedings will be released Thursday.
Conor Mulvaney contributed to this article.