The Cal Poly track and field program had a strong showing in the Big West Conference Championships at Matador Stadium in Cal State Northridge earlier this month.
The 2018 Big West Conference Championships kicked off May 4-5 with the Big West Multi-Events competition. Cal Poly sophomore Caice Lanovaz earned all-conference honors in the heptathlon and senior Jacob Rickman moved to No. 7 in school history for the decathlon.
Lanovaz finished in third place in the women’s heptathlon with a total of 4,980 points.
Rickman came in fourth place in the men’s decathlon with a grand total of 7,070 points
The Conference Championships continued the following weekend as three Mustangs won titles and six teammates joined them on the All-Conference Team on the first day of the track and field competition.
Cal Poly dominated the men’s 10,000m by sweeping all but one of the top seven spots. The pack was led by senior Swarnjit Boyal, who won his second straight title in the event with a performance of 33:57.69.
Joining Boyal on the all-conference team are redshirt sophomore Evan Jameson, who took second with a time of 33:58.87, and senior Mikey Giguere placed third, finishing in 33:59.82. A trio of freshmen followed as Jake Ritter took fourth in 34:00.21; Benjamin Holland came in sixth at 34:02.66; and Tim Chrisman finished seventh at 34:04.34.
In the women’s 10,000m, junior Miranda Daschian also made the all-conference team finishing in third place with a performance of 37:11.15.
Junior Sean McDermott won the first conference title of the meet for the Mustangs with a career-best steeplechase personal record (PR) time of 9:02.96 seconds.
In the women’s steeplechase, senior Maddie McDonald also earned all-conference honors also with a career-best performance, coming in third place with a PR time of 10:40.53 seconds. McDonald is currently No.3 in school history in the event.
On the field, Cal Poly freshman Brooke Tjerrild won the women’s pole vault title, prevailing in a jump-off by clearing 13 feet, 1.5 inches against CSUN senior Gardenia Centanaro. Junior Allison Scranton also made the all-conference team earning third place finish in the discus with a throw of 155 feet, 3 inches.
On the final day of the 2018 finals, sophomore Abi Iriafen and Boyal won conference titles for the Mustangs.
Boyal took home his second gold of the 2018 finals with a first-place finish in the men’s 5,000m with a time of 14:44.24 seconds.
This marks the sixth straight year where Cal Poly has won the 5,000m on the men’s side.
Iriafen won the women’s triple jump for her first championship and the program’s second title in the event in the last three years with a distance of 41 feet, 7.75 inches.
Cal Poly finished in fifth place on the women’s side with 95 points, while the Mustangs were sixth on the men’s side with 100 points.
Cal State Fullerton won its second straight men’s championship, scoring 154 points, while Long Beach State earned the women’s title with 122 points.