HUMBLE, Texas -Three Roadrunners earned top-three finishes on Sunday at the Great West Conference Championships as the CSU Bakersfield men's and women's track and field teams raised their total number of podium finishes and all-GWC selections to seven in the final day of the meet.
CSUB freshman Jamara Scott (Bakersfield, Calif., Golden Valley HS) led the way by placing second in the triple jump with a leap of 36-09.75, while Gabe Holland (So., Anchorage, Alaska, Univ. of Alaska) took third in the discus and Alyssa Page (So., Santa Rosa, Calif., Montgomery HS) placed third in the 400-meter dash.
Holland, who placed fifth in the hammer and fifth in the shot put earlier in the, finally made his way to the podium by hurling the discus 144 feet on Sunday. Page, who just missed the podium and took fourth place in the 200-meter run on Sunday, worked her way to the 400 podium with a time of 57.26 seconds. Earlier in the meet, Scott took sixth in the long jump.
Four out of seven of the all-conference selections for CSUB were men's throwers in Holland, senior Thomas Judge (Bakersfield, Calif., Garces HS), who defended his GWC hammer title and broke his own conference record in the process on Friday, Bryan Wilmert (So., Bakersfield, Calif., Liberty HS), who placed third in the hammer on Friday, and Karnell Grimes (R-So., Rosamond, Calif., Rosamond HS), who finished in second place in the javelin on Friday. On the track, sophomore Derek Stotler (So., Vista, Calif., Rancho Buena Vista HS) took third place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at on Saturday. All student-athletes who finished in the top three in their events earned medals and all-conference honors.
Overall, the CSUB women placed fourth out of six teams with 50 points. The Roadrunner men took fifth place out of six teams with 72 points. Utah Valley won both the men's and women's titles.
Also on Sunday, CSUB's Collin Ellis (Sr., Bakersfield, Calif., Bakersfield HS) took fourth in the discus (137-10), Judge placed sixth (128-06), and Wilmert finished in seventh place (107-03). Justus Mora (Jr., Sparks, Nev., Spanish Springs HS) placed sixth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.96 seconds. Mora and Grimes, along with David Mitchell (R-Sr., Bakersfield, Calif., Stockdale HS) and Matthew Turkington (Jr., Bakersfield, Calif., Centennial HS) helped the CSUB 4X100 relay team place fiftth with a time of 45.26. The CSUB 4X400 relay of Mora, Mitchell, Turkington, and wrestler-turned runner Jesus Ambriz (So., Vista, Calif., Rancho Buena Vista HS) placed sixth 3:37.72.
Just missing the podium, but still scoring points for the CSUB women's squad was Taevionna Wilson (So., Antioch, Calif., Antioch HS), who placed fourth in the 400 by clocking a 58.54. Freshman Audrena Harlan (Antioch, Calif., Dozier Libbey Medical HS) placed fifth in the triple jump by bounding 35-11.25.
Page and Wilson also combined forces to help two of CSUB's women's relays earn fourth-place finishes. Page, Wilson, Scott and Dominique Alexander (So., Bakersfield, Calif., South HS) teammed up to form the 4X100 relay team that clocked a 48.41. Page, Wilson, Alexander and Erica Wilcox (Fr., Bakersfield, Calif., Liberty HS) and made up the 4X400 team that posted a time of 3:55.30.
Melisa Cruz (Sr., Bakersfield, Calif., West HS) just missed out on scoring points by one place as she finished in ninth in the 800 (2:28.54) and 11th in the 1,500 (5:15.51).
Judge, who won the event at the GWC Championship in 2012 with a GWC record-breaking toss of 184-02, bested that mark by over six feet on Friday with a throw measuring 190-09. Wilmert followed in second place with a personal-best mark of 183-02. Grimes took second in the javelin with a throw of 172-04.
Stotler clocked a time of 9 minutes, 54.01 seconds to take third. After two days of the meet, the CSUB men's track and field team is in third place in the team standings with 46 points.
Themeet was the last for CSUB as a member of the Great West Conference as the men's and women's squads are headed to the Western Athletic Conference in 2013-14. It was also the final meet of the 2012-13 season and now the 'Runners will wait to see if they qualified for regionals.
Click the link on this page for full results. Click on photo gallery to see photos of the 'Runners in action at the GWC Championships.
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