By Kevin Reid, Track and Field Head Coach
The opening weekend for the Leopard Track & Field Team was a mixed bag of personal bests, quality efforts and a chance to get back into the mindset of competition after a long lay off.
Typically called a "rust buster" in the track & field community, this early season meeting in Santa Barbara's @ Westmont College was a chance for the Leopard's to check fitness and readiness for the upcoming season. While the Leopard's are officially in their "Indoor" season, this outdoor opener provided good insight what is in store for the coming season.
Event winners on the day included TK Berhe (FR), who continued his string of quality runs, that date back to the XC season. Berhe won his season opening 5,000m run in a time of 15:41.03.
Another winning event on the day was the Men's and Women's High Jump. With both Olivia Magby (JR) and Zackery Deering-Haddix (FR) putting forth winning efforts in their specialty. Magby jumped 1.45m for the event win and Deering-Haddix's winning jump cleared 1.86m of crisp Santa Barbara air.
The other event win on the day for the Leo's was Zachary Reid's effort in the 60m High Hurdles. His time of 8.52 was good enough to win on the day and if at an indoor facility, would have put him on the NCAA qualifying list for the current season.
Other highlights on the day were several runner up finishes, that would include:
- Dante Carter (SO) 60m 7.23
- Michael Sahagun (FR) 1000m 2:32.49
- Efren Martin (FR) 3000m 9:17.19
Official results can be found here, Westmont On Your Marks Open
The Leo's kick off their official Indoor campaign over the next couple weeks with a visit to Flagstaff, AZ and the Ron Mann Invitationanl @ Northern Arizona on Feb 4, and will follow that up with a trip to the Northwest, to Spokane, WA for the Whitworth Invitational on Satuday Feb 12.