DAVIS, Calif. — As one of the NCAA sports most impacted by the shortened season, outdoor track and field had just reached the countable period for national qualification, the very same weekend the indoor season was wrapping up its championship. For UC Davis, the Aggies participated in just one outdoor meet — the Cal Opener in Berkeley, Calif.
Half of the women's team had the opportunity to compete throughout the team's four-meet indoor season. For the men, the Cal Opener ended up their first and only chance, as the cancelations hit a few days prior to one of UC Davis' two home meets, the Aggie Open.
Although there's just one meet officially in the books, the Aggies showed early promise across the board, adding names to the outdoor all-time list, along with setting PRs.
Since the season was nearly three months too short, Aggie fans did not receive the proper introduction to the 2020 UC Davis track and field roster. In total, the women's roster featured 17 newcomers this year, while the men added 14 — rounding out most event squads.
Seniors Dante Berggren, Brandon Jetter and Fabio Kammler, alongside sophomores Anthony Easter and Matthew Okonkwo, all hold marks in the current all-time lists, and were joined by five fresh faces in the sprints/hurdles squad. Two freshmen, Joey Monti and Will Sornberger, were slated to join Easter as hurdlers, with Sebastian Criego in the shorter sprints.
Monti ran for Los Gatos High School, competing in every event 400m or less — hurdles or otherwise. Sornberger has made the transition from a decathlete at the club level to have a stricter focus on the hurdles in college, winning the 400m hurdles at the Cal Opener in a lifetime best 54.60. Criego hails from Clovis, Calif. and holds a 100m PR of 11.02 from 2019, also crossing in a lifetime best 50.29 in the Cal Opener's 400m.
Nevada transfer Theo Goodwin and senior Tristan Cherry also made their Aggie debuts this year; Goodwin is a two-sport athlete at UC Davis as a wide receiver on the football team, while Cherry redshirted the 2019 season, and opened with a collegiate PR of 11.11 in the 100m at Cal.
Senior Alec Moysov picked up the 400m hurdles once arriving at UC Davis, having previously been a 400m runner, and holds a PR of 56.65 from the 2019 Cal Opener.
On the women's team, the sprints and hurdle crew is comprised primarily of returners, although three new student-athletes have been added to the roster: freshmen Alexys Ford and Marnie Lee, and senior transfer Vanessa Koontz. Ford opened her Aggie career indoors in the 400m, but transitioned well outdoors, crossing under 60 for the first time in the 400m while at UC Davis. At Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Ford also ran the 800m, recording a PR of 2:13.91.
Lee, out of Berkeley, Calif., showcased variety in high school, competing in five events between the 200m, 400m, 800m, pole vault, and long jump. Koontz transferred to UC Davis after a successful sprint career at SF State, and was part of the Division II national championship 4x400m relay team for the Gators, finishing as a multiple-time All-American.
Returning to action for the first time in over a year was senior Kayla Gibson and sophomore Alexis Sutherland. Both redshirted previous seasons due to injury and made their comeback at the 2020 Cal Opener in the short sprints. Rounding out the returners, Kierra Davis leads the sprint squad as a two-time conference champion in the 4x100m relay, followed by junior Kathleen Bufka, and sophomores Chelsea Daye and Kirsten Carter. Davis and Carter hold distinction of their own as they were both the Big West Conference Track Freshman of the Year their respective first seasons on campus.
The Aggies also have a trio of true hurdlers in the mix. Senior Xjaedah Williams was looking to break the 14-second threshold in the 100m hurdles, while in the 400m hurdles, sophomore Sadye Peschke and junior Flora Oliveira are currently No. 9 and No. 10 all-time, respectively. A fourth, freshman Clara Chan, made her collegiate hurdle debut at the Cal Opener, competing in the 400m hurdles after a four-year career at South Torrance High School.
In his first year as an assistant coach with the Aggies, Atanas Atanassov has led the pole vault women to new heights — literally. On the heels of a solid indoor season, Bianca Becker and Marin Chamberlin both cleared 3.85m (12-07.50) to win the Cal Opener and find their new place as tied for tenth all-time at UC Davis. For Chamberlin, this was a massive lifetime best.
Also representing the pole vaulters is sophomore Katrina Meier, who opened with an outdoor best 3.70m (12-01.50), freshman Caroline Au, and junior Emily Meyer. Au holds a PR of 3.30m (10-10.00) from the 2019 USATF Regional Junior Olympics, while Meyer looks to return to competition for the Aggies with a pole vault PR of 3.50m (11-05.75) from 2018.
The lone vaulter on the men's side is the defending Big West champion, junior Jered Española. Española sits at No. 6 all-time at UC Davis with a 5.13m (16-10.00) clearance, and earned his first career appearance at the NCAA West Regional last season.
The jumps squad remains a small group with just three men and women each. Senior Sydney Holmes, the Aggies' only heptathlete, leads UC Davis in the triple jump with the No. 7 mark all-time, followed by sophomore Samantha Louie at No. 10. Holmes also does the long jump, along with sprinter Bufka.
The men include a pair of new faces in an Aggie uniform in senior Clem DeGiovanni debuting after a redshirt year at UC Davis, and freshman Donovan Jones. Jones opened at 1.96m (6-05.00) to win the Cal Opener, just shy of his lifetime best 2.03m (6-08.00). DeGiovanni claimed second at Cal, clearing 1.86m (6-01.25). Closing the jumps is sophomore Max Molchanov, who has competed in all three events as an Aggie: high jump, triple jump, and long jump.
With perhaps the hardest task of adjusting athletes to the Division I level, assistant coach KP Singh, who oversees throws, established a stable group of four men and four women for 2020. Both the men and women had two transfers each joining the lineup, featuring Jarrett Rasmussen, Kevin Ward, Erika Nordman, and Brena Videll, with all four moving up from a junior college in Northern California. Cole White, Corey Moore, and Nane Ikahihifo were all true freshmen in 2020, joining lone returner Marlene Gutierrez, who is No. 9 all-time in both shot put and hammer at UC Davis.
Each thrower does at least two events, with the exception of Ward as a hammer-only athlete. Ikahihifo has transitioned into shot put and discuss, transfers Videll and Nordman are hammer and discus, and Gutierrez does shot and hammer. On the men's side, the freshmen are dabbling in all three events, while Rasmussen is primarily shot and discus.
Last, but certainly not least, the distance runners fill in the rest of the roster under second year assistant coach Emma Petersen, and newly minted distance coach/director of operations Drew Petersen. The group has added nine women and five men between the mid-distance and distance events, with just one truly new addition since the cross country season of Sophy Cunningham, a transfer from Oberlin College in Ohio. On the mid-distance side of things, senior Xolan Brown spent the fall cross country season training for his capstone year in the 800m, chasing the Big West title. Brown is eighth in the Aggie record book, and has garnered back-to-back all-conference honors in the 800m.
The men have seen success from junior Ryman Crone in the 3000m steeplechase in 2019, and have added longer distance runners in Trevor Asbury, Simon Fuller, Ivan Mendez, and Max Waechter. Junior Nicholas Brichta joins the Aggies after competing a year on the UC Davis club team, and is technically a transfer along with women's sophomore Brenna Wapstra Scott (Colorado). The women also feature seven freshmen — the Arriaga twins (Chloe Arriaga and Emma Arriaga), Sierra Atkins, Emma Hicken, Ava Jablonski, Julia Marriott, and Joyce Wu. Senior Sarah Anderson made a name for herself on the track, claiming the Big West 10,000m title in 2018, and writing her name as No. 7 all-time in the storied distance record book at UC Davis in both the 5000m and 10,000m.
First year head coach Ngoni Makusha (sprints/jumps) bolstered his coaching staff with the addition of assistant coach Atanas Atanassov (multis/jumps/hurdles) and director of operations Drew Petersen (distances), joining assistant coach KP Singh (throws) and head cross country coach Emma Petersen (distances). Although the season ended in more "what-ifs" than certainties, there is no doubt the Aggies were ready for the long challenge that is outdoor track and field.
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