Cal Poly sophomore Caice Lanovaz led the Mustang track and field multi squads at the seventh annual Sam Adams Combined Events Invitational at Westmont last weekend where she moved to No. 5 in school history for the heptathlon with 5,011 points.
On day one of the invitational, Lanovaz ended the day in eighth place after she ran a 100m hurdles time of 14.92 seconds, high-jumped 5′ 3.25″, threw 34′ 6.25″ in the shot put, and ran the 200m in 26.10.
However, Lanovaz made up ground in the scoring column on the second day where she surpassed the 5,000 mark. First, Lanovaz took fifth place in the long jump with an 18 feet and a half-inch mark, followed by a collegiate PR javelin throw of 105′ 4.75″ for seventh place.
Lanovaz then closed the heptathlon with a lifetime-best time of 2:18.60 in the 800m to reach 5,011 points and finish in fourth place. With her new personal record, Lanovaz’s point total is now ranked fifth on Cal Poly’s all time heptathlon performances and 24th nationally for the current track season.
Junior teammate Keana Viss, who took seventh with a score of 4,534, also finished the heptathlon with a collegiate career-best total.
After ending the first day in 11th, scoring 2,664 points through the initial four events, Viss finished strong the second day, posting several personal records.
Viss posted a 105′ 3.75″ mark in the javelin, long-jumped a PR of 16′ 2.75″, and ran a PR in the 800m, recording a fifth-place 2:21.17, to accumulate a total of 4,534 points.
Three other Mustangs competed in partial decathlons, as sophomore Bailey Thayer took seventh place with 5,672 points; freshman Jason Lewis finished ninth with 5,446 points; and senior Jacob Rickman collected 2,490 points from four events.
Thayer added to his 3,350-point day-one total when he took fourth place in the 110m hurdles with a time of 15.38 seconds, posted marks of 106′ 10.25 for the discus and 11′ 1.75″ in the pole vault, and closed with a career-best 5:02.40 in the 1,500 meters.
Lewis, debuting in his first collegiate decathlon, improved his tenth-place position on day two after finishing in sixth place in the 1,500m with a time of 4:56.47, running 16.38 in the 110m hurdles, pole-vaulting 12′ 5.5″, and throwing the javelin 118′ 8.25″.
Rickman, the meet record-holder for the shot put, threw 47′ 10″ to win the event on Friday, and followed that up the next day with a fourth-place finish in the discus (at 129′ 2.75″) before vaulting 11′ 9.5″ and running a personal-best 4:59.15 in the 1,500 meters.
The full track & field team will return to action April 14 at UCLA’s Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational at Drake Stadium.