As many were celebrating love on Saturday, so was the Matadors’ track and field team as they displayed their love for setting personal records at the Husky Invitational in Seattle, Wash.
In their last chance to boost season-bests before the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Indoor Championships in two weeks, the women sprinted their passion on the track, even though their ardor did not take any of them to the final round.
Sophomore Stella Dugall along with junior Lauren Michaels participated in the 60-meter dash, yet neither posted times to take them past preliminaries. Michaels placed fourth in her heat at 8.21 seconds and Dugall finished fifth with an 8.03 time. Dugall also competed in the 60-meter hurdles, where she established a season-best 9.04 seconds.
In the 200-meter run, freshman Jasmine Cox clocked in at 25.81 seconds and finished first in her heat while red shirt freshman Jacqueline Harrison ran 26.02. Closely behind her, senior Tanisha Cooper posted 26.17.
Cox also set a personal-best 56.00 in the 400-meter run. The time was three seconds faster than her previous indoor best.
Others that were in the spirit of showing off their love for creating bests in the 400-meter were sophomore Brenna Hoffmon, who won her heat and finished at a personal-best 56.93. Harrison claimed her section with a 56.84 time, Cooper with 59.05 and, trailing behind her, Michaels with 59.12 seconds. The 4-by-400 relay, comprised of these four ladies, finished first in their heat with a time of 3:49.61.
In the 3,000-meter run, sophomore Lilyana Morejon claimed a season-best time of 9:57.63.
For the men, junior De’Shawn Waters sprinted a 6.95 time in the 60-meter dash, which may not have been his season-best, but was enough to rank him in the finals, where he ran 6.97 seconds to claim fifth place. Closely behind were junior Ben Santos, who attained a 7.00 mark, junior Nicholas Taylor, who ran 7.01, and senior Kevin Nious, who timed in at 7.18.
The 200-meter was another opportunity and the Matadors’ men took the chance to postseason-bests. Waters ran 21.82 seconds and won his heat. Taylor clocked in at 22.08 and Santos did it at 22.78.
Continuing with the atmosphere, Nious finished third in his heat in the 400-meter run with a personal-best of 48.89. He was the only one representing CSUN in this event.
The 60-meter hurdles was another event surrounded by season-best affection when freshman Michael Woodham posted 8.43 seconds in the preliminaries. He, however, missed his chance to dominate in the final round.
The team will be head to the Washington’s Dempsey Indoor facility on Feb. 27 and 28 for the MPSF Championships, where the comfort of just creating season-bests will be left in the past with Valentine’s Day as the team hopes to get some first-place rankings.
