Both the CSUN men and women posted several season-bests Saturday at the Texas Invitational at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas. The women’s team came in second place with a score of 152 while the Texas women’s team came in first with a score of 184. The Men’s team finished fifth with a score of 64.50.
Junior thrower Monique Griffiths nearly matched her CSUN record hammer throw of 200 feet, six inches, which she set at the UCR Spring Classic two weeks ago. Griffiths won the event Saturday with a throw of 199-2.
Senior Mariah Counts followed up Griffiths’ hammer win by posting the best mark in the javelin with a CSUN season-best of 143-4. Counts also placed second in shot put with a mark of 47-2.50 which is just off her season-best of 47-3.50.
Junior Marie Veale had the Matadors’ top times for CSUN in the short sprints as she finished seventh in the 100-meters (11.90) and ninth in the 200-meters. Veale’s time of 23.76 in the 200 is a CSUN season-best while junior Lexis Lambert also posted a season-high of 23.96 which put her in 1th place.
Lambert also clocked her best time of the season in the 400-meters as she finished sixth in 53.98. Senior Samantha Dirks, posted a season-best of 24.38 in the 200 meters and was a spot behind Lambert in the 400 with a season-high of 54.64. Veale also improved her season-high in the 100-meter hurdles clocking a time of 13.77 while Emma Millard was fourth in the 400-meter hurdles (1:00.40).
The 4×100 relay team of senior Shawnta Barnes, freshman Cydney Powell, Lambert and Veale improved CSUN’s best time to 45.33 as the Matadors finished third.
Senior Lydia French finished second to U.S. Olympia Amy Acuff in the high jump. French finished with a mark of 5 feet 8.75 inches In the long jump, Senior Olympia Jewett and Junior Marissa Rossi both had season-bests as Jewett finished third with a mark of 18-10.50 followed by Rossi at 18-8.50.
On the men’s side, junior Anass Zhoury continued his impressive outdoor season finishing third in the 800 meters in 1:51.41,his best time of the season. Junior Chafik Oussemgane ran his first 1,500 meter race of the season and finished fifth in 3:59.26.
Senior Khalid Jones ran a 48.31 in the 400 meters which is now his best time all season. Fellow senior Kenneth Stone was right behind, season-best time of 48.38.
In the 4×100 relay, Sophomore Jordan Taylor, Senior Carl Horsley, Stone and Sophomore Kiyoshi Johnson posted CSUN’s best time of the season in 40.33,which was second among seven schools.
In the field events, Sophomore Josh Webster barely missed his best triple jump of the season but still won the event with mark of 47-9.
The men finished fifth in team scores with 64.50 points as the Texas men took home first place with a score of 187.
