March 8, 2008

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DAVIS, Calif. -- Jade Myles won both the women's triple jump and long jump while freshman Ray Green finished first and second, respectively, in those events on the men's side as both UC Davis track and field teams finished second to Fresno State in a quadrangular meet on Saturday at Woody Wilson Track.

The Bulldogs scored 77 points to win the women's competition with UC Davis scoring 61 to take second. Stanford was third with 43 points while San Francisco took fourth with 13. The Fresno State men were also victorious, tallying 75.5 points to edge the Aggies who had 67.5. The Cardinal were third with 41 while USF finished with eight points.

The meet was the home-opener for UC Davis and featured solid performances by both Aggie teams. The women finished with seven wins, including both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, while the men had six win, four of them in field events.

"Our whole goal was to be competitive," said Aggie men's coach Jon Vochatzer. "In all the events that I looked and watched, everyone who had a chance to compete did a great job. And that's what makes me so proud about our team this year."

Women's coach Deanne Vochatzer was pleased with last week's strong performance at the All-Cal Challenge Cup where UC Davis won 10 events with a limited squad and said Saturday was another step in the right direction.

"I think we continued it today," she said.

"We're moving people around and finding out what they're best at so that we'll know by the conference meet what we're shooting for," Vochatzer added.

Myles, the school-record holder in the triple jump, went 39 feet, 11.5 inches, to score five points for UC Davis which went 1-2 in that event after Stephanie Eckels took second at 39-2.5. Myles also captured the long jump at 18-2.5, the only double-winner in individual events in the women's meet.

UC Davis also picked up an impressive win from Kim Conley in the 5,000 who won the race in 16 minutes, 53.91 seconds, barely missing the NCAA regional qualifying mark of 16:52.00 despite running the race in tough wind. Her time, however, moved her from sixth to fifth all-time at UC Davis.

Other Aggie wins came from Sirena Williams in the 100 hurdles, whose time of 14.11 would've been a school record had it not been wind-aided, and by Nicole Theus in the 100 (12.25). UC Davis also captured both relays with Eckels, Willa Porter and Ugo Eke racing legs on both squads. Theus was part of the winning short relay while freshman Kiara Reed ran on the long relay.

Eckels had a productive and busy five-event day for the Aggies, also finishing fourth in both the 100 and 200 to go with her second-place in the triple jump and contributions in both relays. She finished the triple jump just moments before hurrying over to run the 4x400.

Tessa Fraser improved her career-best mark in the pole vault by four inches, taking third in 11-11.75, solidifying her No. 4 spot on the Aggies' career list. Ashley Hearn went 147-1 in the discus to strengthen her No. 6 spot on that list.

The UC Davis men had a half-dozen wins, including the victory by Green who nearly matched his debut mark of 49-1.75 from last week. Green went 49-1.5 in Saturday's meet, winning by nearly three feet. He took second in the long jump with a outdoor season-best mark of 22-6.5.

Polly Gnepa won the 110 high hurdles in a blistering mark of 14.06 that would've qualified him for regionals and moved him to No. 2 all-time at UC Davis had it not been wind-aided. Jazz Trice took second for the Aggies in that same race in 14.43. K.C. Cody captured the remaining UC Davis win on the track, leading five consecutive Aggies across the finish line with his time of 14:56.59 in the 5,000. UC Davis scored all 11 available points in that race.

In field events, Jah Bennett (high jump) and Matt Swarbrick (discus) joined Green with wins in their events for the second straight week. Bennett took first with a season-best mark of 6-8 while Swarbrick won the discus at 169-2. Lance Walkington brought the final victory for UC Davis, throwing the javelin 161 feet and winning by almost 14 feet.

Fresno State won four events to help it win the women's title while Dondre McDonald won the 100 and 200 for the Bulldog men to help them finish first.

UC Davis will be at UC Santa Barbara next weekend.