The Cal State Northridge track team went to the Cal State Los Angeles Twilight meet, followed by the Mt. SAC Relays Multi-Events that was hosted by Azusa Pacific University, April 12-14.

The last day of the events, April 15, were not available.

At the Mt. SAC Relays, Justin Johnson finished in third place in the decathlon. Johnson scored 6846 points, a season best.

“This was my first decathlon of the year,” Johnson said. “It was a good point for me to start on.”

Brittany Ricketts finished in fourth at the heptathlon. She had a personal record of 4865 points, a difference of 300 points, at the California Invitational.

“I feel like I did pretty good,” Ricketts said. “My javelin could have been a little better, my 800 (meter) is getting there.

Ricketts said she believes that she will be able to beat her personal record in the shot put as well.

La’Shana Verdon took ninth place in the Mt. SAC heptathlon with a career best score of 5,125 points.

“I feel like I did ok. I want to work on my events that are weaker,” Verdon said. “I want to be better.”

Mt. Sac had a plethora of accomplishment among various events. Brandon Ruffin had a time of 11.04 in the 100 meter and finished in 17th place. Allen Lindsay was the 14th with a time of 48.78 seconds.

Daniel Clements finished in 9th with a time of 1:51.69. Clements was a mere .2 second away from his season best in the 800. Landon Llamas finished in 32nd with a time of 1:54.93.

Christian Haase placed 29th in the 1,500m with a total time of 3:58.83. James Fredrickson had a time of 54.71 in the 400m hurdles. Fredrickson finished in 13th place.

In field events, Ryan Richards finished in 11th place in the javelin with a mark of 178-3 (54.34m).

Additionally, Jonathan Moore had a long jump mark of 22-1.75 (6.75 meters). Moore took third in that event.

“There’s a lot to improve on,” Richards said. “There’s a lot of technical things I need to get out before conference. Right now I’m just trying to get healthy.”

Throughout this season, injuries have been the single most devastating problem to the Matadors. Head coach Don Stametz, however, remains optimistic about his athletes recovery. The team is hopefully going to get a couple players back next week, Stametz said.

Dominique Calvin took second in the 100m and had a personal best time of 11.97. Calvin also took fourth in the long jump with another impressive achievement; she had a personal best of 18-9.25 (5.72m)

“I felt like I did ok,” Calvin said. “But I could have done better.”

Calvin believes that she will be able to beat her 100 meter and long jump personal best before the end of the season.

Liz Camy took 30th in the 5,000m with a time of 18:37.29. In the field Jere Summers had a mark of 146-7 (44.68m) in the discus, and finished in fourth. Bobbie Patton also had a throw of 123-10 (37.75) in the javelin. Patton finished in 11th place.

By only the first day there were equally impressive turnouts from various athletes. By the start of the second day, Johnson was in first place with a 137 point lead.

“It was a good day for me,” Johnson said. “I (beat my personal) record for my first day. The first day doesn’t mean too much, but it was a good day for me.”

Johnson had a total of 3,806 points after 5 events. He was followed by Kevin Johnson of Colorado State with a score of 3,669 points.

Freshman Awet Hagos was in 24th place the first day. Hagos ended the day with 3050 points.

La’Shana Verdon also did well the first day when she sat in 13th place with 2,934 points. Verdon ran a season best with a time of 15.33 in the 100 meter hurdles. Verdon also posted an additional season best in the 200 meter with a time of 25.34 seconds.

In addition to injuries, weather conditions affects the outcome of the Mt. Sac relays. Strametz said there was over an inch of rain on the track, making this an extremely unsafe condition to compete in. Many of the athletes lost an opportunity to perform on Friday in the rain.

“We’re going to have to change our whole mind-set around because of what happened,” Strametz said. “But this sort of thing happens in Track and Field. We got out of it what we wanted to.”

Nicole Garcia can be reached at nicole.garcia.66@csun.edu.