April 5, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO STATE DISTANCE CARNIVAL
Heat sheets | Meet Schedule | Live Results
STANFORD INVITATIONAL
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DAVIS, Calif. - The UC Davis men's and women's track and field teams will end a three-week layoff when they split for meets this weekend for the Stanford Invitational and the San Francisco State Distance Carnival.
The meet at Stanford, which runs Friday and Saturday, is one of the top meets in the country, bringing together top collegiate and non-collegiate runners. UC Davis will send 20 women and 17 men to the Cardinal's track, competing in events during both of the meet's days.
The San Francisco State Distance Carnival will be contested on Friday and also features high quality competition. Seven Aggie women and six men are scheduled for that meet.
It's been nearly three weeks since UC Davis was last able to compete. The Aggies went across the Causeway for Sacramento State's Hornet Invitational on Mar. 17 before taking a schedule bye week for final exams the following week.
They traveled to Fresno State last weekend for the Bulldog Invitational but the meet was cancelled after only two events because of inclement weather. However, UC Davis did pick up an impressive mark in one of those contested events when senior Ashley Hearn went 56.17 meters (184-3) in the hammer, beating her previous best by nearly seven feet and moving her up a spot to No. 2 all-time at UC Davis.
Head coach Drew Wartenburg said the weekend's competition not only provides UC Davis the chance to face elite level competition but serves as a bridge to upcoming key competition which turns to postseason focus next month.
"Part of what we talked about is the early season, so to speak, is over now and April really is a heavy competition period and has a lot of the big traditional invite meets," he said. "It's an opportunity to go and measure ourselves against regional and national level competition which ideally, if we're ready, brings out the best individually. That would be a focus of a weekend like this one."
UC Davis will start early at San Francisco with senior Axel Stanovsky scheduled for the 10,000-meter run at 8:45 a.m. Events on the track run throughout the day, concluding with 4x400 relays at 5:15 p.m.
The Stanford Invitational starts on the track at 10 a.m. and in the field an hour earlier. The Aggies will have competitors in both venues beginning in the morning and going late into the evening, the latter portion which includes 10,000-meter races for Sarah Sumpter, Krista Drechsler and Jonathan Petersen which will run past 10 p.m.
