2013 Drake Relays Results (Day 1)
2013 Brutus Hamilton Invitational Results
2013 Pacific West Conference Championships Results (Day 1)
Academy of Art University Track & Field was in action at three different locations on Friday as a small contingent of women's athletes headed to Iowa for the 104th Drake Relays, the men's team and remainder of the women were in action at the inaugural Pacific West Conference Championships, and senior
Jenny Bergren stayed local to compete in the 1500m at Cal's Brutus Hamilton Invitational.
Des Moines, IA – In the prestigious Drake Relays for the second consecutive year, the Urban Knights again showed their ability to best much of the Division I and Division II competition alike at Drake Stadium.
The women's 4x100m relay team of seniors
Julian Purvis,
Briana Stewart,
Vashti Thomas and junior
Dinesha Bean collectively posted a 46.12 in Friday's preliminaries. The quartet would claim second overall behind Lincoln (MO), but ahead of Iowa Central and others to qualify for Saturday's finals.
Then, in the 100m hurdles prelims, Purvis put herself among the top eight to make the finals, posting a 14.07 against a tough wind factor that did not allow even the top finisher, Michigan's Cindy Ofili (14.01), to get below the 14.00 barrier. Purvis placed 5th overall.
In the afternoon session, ART U sent Stewart,
Dominique Berry,
Chantel King, and
Keanna Moody into the prelims of the women's 4x400m relay and they delivered a 3:45.01 resulting time to again qualify for Saturday's finals. The group had never competed in that particular foursome, but the end result was still well below the cutoff for a NCAA DII provisional qualifier.
Berkeley, CA – Competing in one of two meets this weekend, ART U senior
Jenny Bergren offered a dominant performance in the 1500m out at Edwards Stadium for the Brutus Hamilton Invitational hosted by UC Berkeley.
The Orinda, CA native produced another program record time in the event, finishing in 4:31.43 to claim second overall out of 18 competitors. Powered by a strong first lap (55.095), Bergren used the season-best and NCAA provisional qualifying time to edge out the top runner from the University of San Francisco.
San Diego, CA – The Urban Knights not in Iowa or Berkeley all headed down to the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University for day one of the 2013 Pacific West Conference Championships.
The surrounding conference opponents were introduced to one
Johnny Carter Friday as the redshirt freshman dominated the long jump. Out of 13 jumpers, Carter finished 1st overall with a final distance of 24-6.5. He alone would add 10 points to the ART U team score with that effort.
Also scoring was sophomore
Jack Nevins who became the first Urban Knight to ever compete in the 3000m steeplechase. He finished 7th overall.
Several Academy of Art athletes qualified for their respective event finals coming tomorrow. Among those were sophomore
Jaylon Hicks and junior
Ronald Spears, Jr. in the 100m dash prelims. Hicks was the 4th place finished (10.68) while Spears, Jr. took 6th (10.81) with his first action in the event this season.
In the men's 400m prelims,
Stephen Peevy and
Shaquille Howard were both in the Top 6, earning themselves a chance at the title in the event tomorrow. Peevy claimed 3rd of 16 with his 48.47 mark while Howard went 48.50 to capture 6th.
Troy Hines II posted a 15.37 in the 110m hurdles prelims to also qualify for Saturday's final.
Luis Nunez added a new program record in the discus, posting a 102-1 to top his own previous high from a little over a month ago.
Highlighting the women's side,
Jasmin Guinn soared to her best distance in the long jump this season. The freshman posted an 18-5 (5.52m).
Heather Castro was among the Top 8 in the 800m prelims with her time of 2:22.25. She will be in action as part of tomorrow's final.
Saturday features the second day of action for Academy of Art in both the Drake Relays and the PacWest Championships.
