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sports:
track and field
Haneef and Perona
lead 49ers at league meet
By Alexander Gordon
On-line Forty-Niner
Long Beach State
seniors Tayyiba Haneef and Kashus Perona won the women's high
jump (6-2) and the men's 400-meter dash (46.81 seconds) respectively,
highlighting the 49ers showing at the Big West Conference
Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Jack Rose Track last
weekend.
The University
of Idaho walked away with both the men's and women's team
championships.
Haneef jumped her
career best on Friday. The 6-2 mark was the second highest
jump in the nation this year for collegiate athletes and third
best of any non-collegiate athlete in the United States.
"She's now
entering the international level of competition," said
LBSU Head Coach Andy Sythe. "If you're top three in the
United States, you make the world team and the Olympics. Those
kind of things make me feel good."
Before the Big
West Championship finals on Friday, Haneef had yet to qualify
for nationals.
"I was telling
Andy [Sythe] that I'm a last-meet jumper because I didn't
qualify for nationals for indoor season until the last meet
also," Haneef said. "So I think it's just that pressure
knowing that I have to do it at this meet that makes me jump
better."
In Perona's last
collegiate track meet, the senior runner used his experience
and poise to take the 400. Holding the No. 1 ranking from
the preliminary round, Perona was off at the gun and was coasting
for the first 200 meters. At times during the first half of
the race, he was as far as 20 meters behind the front runner.
When Perona hit
the second turn, he shifted into a higher gear and sucked
up the competition, winning by a blistering 1.37 seconds.
"I just wanted
to relax, run a smart race, a strong race," Perona said.
"I had such long day. I didn't want that [the 400] to
be the end of my day. So I just wanted to get out, relax and
focus on my strength, which is my endurance and bring it home
as strong as I could. I guess it worked."
Perona also placed
fourth in the 200, and was the third leg of 4x100 relay that
took second place with a time of 41.19. The senior runner
has had a huge impact on LBSU's track and field team for the
four years that he has been on the squad.
"Kashus, what
can you say about a guy who's been such a great leader for
us for all these years," Sythe said. "He's the kind
of guy that makes Long Beach State proud, makes all our athletes
excited about the sport because there's guys like him that
put us on the map ... he's done it for four years. We're sorry
to see him go, but we like seeing him go out like he did."
Freshman Nina Grubbs
came through with an unexpected win in the heptathlon with
a total score of 4,746 points in the two day, seven-event
competition. Grubbs became the second 49er to win the event
in three years and understands the mentality needed to be
successful in heptathlon.
"You got to
be strong," Grubbs said. "You got to know how to
conserve your energy, that's one thing. People think you can
go all out, do this, do that, but you can't. It's seven whole
events for two days. So I guess you got to have a mentality
like 'I can do this' but conserve."
In the women's
pole vault, freshman Connie Jerz came in as the No. 1-ranked
jumper and held form to place first in the event. The freshman
vaulted 12-7 1/4, but was slightly disappointed that she didn't
hit a new personal record.
"I didn't
hit my goals," Jerz said. "I wanted to win but I
also wanted to hit a PR [personal record] at the end. It's
not over yet, I still have junior nationals and stuff. I learned
a lot. I need a lot more experience."
Her career-best
mark is 13-1 1/2, which she jumped earlier this season at
the Sun Angel Classic hosted by Arizona State University.
Other LBSU notables
include senior Shannon Livingston's second place finish in
the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 14.07. As of late,
her times have dropped significantly, Sythe said.
Sophomore Jason
Dolison took second in the 400 (48.18) and was a part of the
second-place 4x100 49er relay team.
Ami Goldhammer,
freshman, placed third in the javelin throw with a career-best
mark of 138-2, adding 15 feet to her personal record.
Senior Christine
Riel took home third in the 10,000 meter with a time of 37
minutes,16.27 seconds.
Overall, the men's
team placed sixth with a composite score of 57 points while
the women's side took fifth with a team score of 77 points.
"Our athletes,
I felt, did very well," Sythe said. "Sometimes you
have ups and downs. We had a lot of ups on our women's team.
We picked up probably 27 points that I didn't expect based
on how we ranked coming in and that was a big, big bonus for
us ... on the men's side we struggled in a couple of spots
but made up for it in some others. So we kind of balanced
out."
Brandon Campell,
junior from Cal State Fullerton, was selected as the Men's
Track and Field Athlete of the Year. He won the high jump
with a mark of 7-4 1/2 and the long jump with a leap of 25-10.
Both performances set new CSUF school records.
Idaho junior Angela
Whyte was chosen the Women's Track and Field Athlete of the
Year. The junior won the 100 hurdles (13.30), the long jump
(19-5 1/4), and was a member of both first-place relay teams
for Idaho. Whyte took home six medals in the championships.
The next step for
LBSU's athletes are the nationals and junior nationals. The
nationals take place in Eugene, Ore. on May 30 through June
2 while the junior nationals are set for June 16?17 in Richmond,
Va.
Haneef will compete
in the nationals in the high jump.
For junior nationals,
the LBSU qualifiers include Grubbs (heptathlon), Goldhammer
(heptathlon and javelin), Jerz (pole vault), Drea Palacio
(1,500), A.J. Mendez (400 hurdles) and Serena Boykin (shot
put).
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