The University of La Verne men's track team competed this past weekend in tournaments in Arizona and California. Various Leopards competed in different events, reaching new heights in regard to personal recrods while still continuing to set new marks nationally. Participating in the Northern Arizona University Tune-Up, Zackery Deering-Haddix competed in the high jump and recorded a jump of @1.97m.which is still ranked #1 in the NCAA DIII West. Zachary Reid improved upon his ULV school record on the 69m High Hurdles twice, with personal bests in both the preliminary and the Final with marks of 8.35 and 8.21. The performance moved him up the NCAA national performance list to #29 nationall.
Saturday would see the Leopards compete in the PP Collegiate All-Comers Meet at Pomona Pitzer. The day was a solid day for the Leos as many of the athletes achieved several personal bests on the track and in the field. The most notable performance of the PP Collegiate All-Comers meet was the performance of the men in the 3000m. Coach Jamie Norton was pleased to see compete at a high level. "We had a really strong run in the men's 3k. All 5 put themselves in the top 12 all time for La Verne and all ran significantly faster than their 3200 PRs. Freshman Efren Martin lead the charge with a really smart confident race, bringing the aggressiveness in the last 1000m to dip under 9:00 with a 20 second PR of 8:57. He pulled Jared and Edward with him who both closed fast and ran 9:01 and 9:02. Jose Reyes fought hard to a 9:12, and in the next heat Santi Herrera ran with great poise moving up throughout his race and managed to dip under 9:10, a 14 second PR. It was our first opportunity of the season to get in a really competitive race and we showed the hard work that they put in over December and January has set them up for a great outdoor season." The men of ULV completely revamped the ULV all time list for the 3000m.
This week Reid, Deering-Haddix and Michael Sahagun will continue to chase NCAA Indoor qualification in Seattle at the Seattle Pacific Final Qualifier. The rest of the team will compete at CMS at the Rossi Relays.
