April 11, 2009

DAVIS, Calif. - UC Davis junior Chidinma Onyewuenyi set a school record in the women's shot put on Saturday at the Woody WIlson Classic, winning the event with a regional-qualifying mark of 47 feet, 11 inches and helping highlight 13 first-place finishes by the Aggie men's and women's track and field teams during their home finale.

Onyewuenyi, a junior from Gilroy, went nearly two feet past her previous-best distance of 46 feet, jumping from No. 4 on the program's career list all the way to the top. She broke Kim Gleeson's school record of 47-6.25 set in 2005.

The mark also surpassed the qualifying mark of 46-11 for the NCAA Division I Regional Championships and gave Onyewuenyi a second event for the postseason, joining teammate Kim Conley (1,500; 5,000) with that distinction. Onyewuenyi previously qualified in the hammer throw.

Her win was one of seven first-place finishes for the Aggie women on Saturday. Other victories for UC Davis came from Ugo Eke in the 400 meters (56.76 seconds), Sirena Williams in the 100 hurdles (14.04), Allison Stoakley who also set a meet record in the 3,000 steeplechase (10.59.13) and both the 4x100 (47.60) and 4x400 (3:51.33) relay teams. Anna Smidebush won her second of the 5,000 in 18:18.42.

Another highlight for the women came from thrower Ashley Hearn who moved from No. 4 to No. 3 on the Aggies' all-time discus list after her personal-best mark of 159-04 on Saturday. Hearn previously punched her ticket to the regional meet in the season (155-09). Brittany Bickel improved her No. 7 position on the javelin (132-02), setting a PR by more than a foot.

The UC Davis men posted plenty of highlights as well with four of their wins coming in the field events. Jake Fuller helped lead the way by taking the discus with a throw of 166-01, a season-best for the Aggies. Scott Pierro captured the shot put at 51-1, Igor Seriba went 46-03.25 to win the triple jump and Ben Nelson finished first in the high jump at 6-09.75.

The Aggies had a pair of winners on the track. Standout hurdler Polly Gnepa won the 110 high hurdles in 14.16, marking the fourth time this season he's gone under the NCAA regional mark of 14.30. Russ Pfaff came close to another regional time for UC Davis, winning the steeplechase in 9:11.29, just over the qualifying time of 9:07.00.

Both the Aggie men and women had strong days in the pole vault. Lauren Radke and Tessa Fraser each cleared 12-03.50 for the women while Jamie Feaster, Josh Sandler, Ethan Ostrom and Daniel Turvey all went over 15-07 for the men.

More than 500 collegiate and open competitors were entered in the meet which has usually been held during the campus's Picnic Day activities but was moved up a week earlier for this season.

"A lot of kids stepped up to the plate today," said men's coach Jon Vochatzer. "We really did work through the meet. That was the intent coming in, get a lot of things done, work on some things that we had to work on, be competitive and do the best job we could do in our last home meet."

The meet was also the home finale for several outstanding seniors who were honored prior to the day-ending 4x400 relays. For the women, the group included Seante Baker, Conley, Katie Maltester, Sarah O'Neill, Willa Porter, Lorin Scott and Nicole Theus. The senior men included K.C. Cody, Joey Farkash, Feaster, Micah Grant, Sejoon Park, Patrick Parsel and Tolu Wusu.

"(Senior day) is always special," said women's coach Deanne Vochatzer. "And to have a nice day is awesome."

The Woody Wilson Classic was sponsored by Atlas Tracks, Brooks Running and ROEBBELEN.

UC Davis returns to action next weekend when it travels to the Mt. Sac Relays in Southern California.