Issue date: 4/30/02 Section: Sports

This past Saturday, Sacramento State's track and field team participated in the Fresno State Invitational and five Hornets came out on top in their respective competition while two Hornet relay teams also finished first. Despite the seven first-place finishes, Sac State as a team could not surpass Fresno State, as both the men's and women's teams had to settle for second-place finishes. The men managed to pile up 140 team points, falling short of Fresno State's 231. But they best the rest of the competition, which included University of California, Riverside and California State University, Bakersfield. The women fell behind the Bulldogs, whose score of 304 was unreachable. The Hornets put together 192 points to push the Hornets ahead of UC Riverside, Cal State Bakersfield and Sonoma State. Senior Myesha Kirtman dominated in the 110-meter hurdles, strengthening her lead in the Big Sky and establishing a new career-best time of 13.78 seconds. Her previous hurdles time of 13.87 was the reigning top time in the conference until Kirtman shattered her own season record on Saturday. Fellow sprinter junior Jonathan Davis was not outdone by his teammate, setting a career-best time in his signature event, the 100-meter dash. Davis's speed not only sent him whizzing by his opponents but also improved his career best time of10.60 to 10.55. Neff feels that Davis has the ability to advance to the NCAA Regionals, but he will have to do some work to get their. "He'll have to run in the 10.30's to make it there," Neff said. Senior Cuco Chavez again showed his value to the team by finishing first in the 1500 with a time of 3 minutes, 51.41 seconds. Chavez has been close to breaking his personal best time in the event for the past two weeks. For the first time this season, senior Sharita Reed took home a first-place finish. Reed outlasted the rest of the field in the 400, ending with a time of 56.95. Success in the 400 continued on the men's side when freshman Obi Osuji and sophomore Brent Sims took first and second place in the event, respectively, to help lead the Hornets. Osuji recorded a time of 47.95 while Sims finished a close second with a time of 48.49. The men's team again proved that its sprinters could possibly be unmatched when it took first place in both the 4x100 and 4x400 relay competitions. In the 4x100, Sac State sprinted to victory with a time of 40.94, while the rest of the competition struggled to keep pace and finished with times greater than 41 seconds. In the 4x400, the quartet cruised to victory in a time of 3:13.47, and the closest team thereafter trailed by more than a second. Earlier in the week, the Hornets signed two highly-touted recruits from Texas and Florida. Leclair Ebow, from La Porte, Texas, has signed on to join Sac State's track and field team and will enter the 2002 fall semester as a freshman. Ebow is one of the top ranked prep hurdlers in Texas in both the 110 and 300 meters. Arsenio Corbin from St. Petersburg, Fla. also runs in the 110- and 300-meter hurdling events. Corbin is the No. 1 ranked prep in Florida in 110 hurdles with a time of 13.70. Track and field fans have the opportunity to check out Corbin when he at the Golden West Invitational at Hornet Stadium on June 8. The meet is for only the top eight nationally ranked teams. Sac State will continue on the road to the Big Sky Championships with their Spring Invitational on Saturday at Hornet Stadium. "(The athletes) are pretty much where I want them to be," Neff said. "They are improving right at the right time."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools