The Cal Poly track and field team captured six event championships this past weekend at the Big West Conference Championships in Long Beach, Calif.
With senior Nick Woolf leading the team with two event wins, the Cal Poly men’s track and field team snagged third place while the women’s team, which won four events, finished in sixth.
Woolf led the Mustangs by winning both the men’s steeplechase and 5,000-meter in times of 8:58 and 14:52, respectively. Woolf recorded 20 of the Mustangs’ 114 points.
Out of the entire Mustangs squad, 14 athletes scored points for the men’s team and nine women added to the women’s team score of 76.
Out of those 23 men and women, 10 earned all-conference status and an opportunity to compete in the NCAA West Regional Qualifier.
Following in Woolf’s footsteps with event victories were senior Kendal Nielsen, redshirt-freshman Megan Mooney, freshman Katie Izzo and freshman Peyton Bilo.
Nielsen, who ranks No. 3 in school history in the triple jump, won the event on her first attempt with a jump of 42-6 1/4 inch. The closest competitor to her was UC Santa Barbara’s Alivia Schlueter, who jumped nearly a foot-and-a-half shorter (41-1/2 inch).
Mooney recorded a women’s javelin victory by the skin of her teeth with a throw of 153-feet-2 inches (46.70 meters). Her competitor, Karen Bulger from Hawaii, also threw 153-2 but was just shy of Mooney’s meter mark with 46.68 meters.
Winning the women’s 5,000-meter, Izzo recorded a time of 17:25. Izzo’s time was enough to beat teammate Peyton Bilo by six seconds, who finished second.
Bilo did, however, make her way to the top of the podium in another event with a time of 36:47 in the women’s 10,000-meter. Bilo outran her competition by 17 seconds, cruising her way to a conference championship.
Five other men earned all-conference (defined as finishing third or better in an event) honors after Woolf. Izzo and Bilo also recorded all-conference honors in the women’s 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter.
Junior David Galvez recorded a second place finish in the men’s steeple chase with a time of 9:11. Galvez finished behind Woolf, giving Cal Poly the top two spots on the podium.
Fellow junior Clayton Hutchins finished in the top-three by recording a second place time of 14:54 in the men’s 5,000-meter. Hutchins, like Galvez, finished behind Woolf.
Junior Swarnjit Boyal and sophomore Michael Giguere finished second and third in the men’s 10,000-meter, respectively, controlling the top of the podium for Cal Poly. Boyal finished in 30:29 while Giguere finished six seconds behind in 30:35.
Devin Bennett finished off the Mustangs’ all-conference honors with a second place finish in men’s javelin on his final attempt. His throw of 206-3, was more than 10 feet farther than his previous throw of 194-9.
The Mustangs finished the weekend with 114 men’s team points and 76 women’s team points. Approximately 10 Mustangs will have the opportunity to compete at the NCAA West Regional in Lawrence, Kansas. Official entries will be listed this week.