Bears to Face Conference's Best at USC Saturday and Sunday
Malaina Payton will challenge for a Pac-12 title in the long jump.
May 9, 2013
Complete News Release
Pac-12 Championships Website
THIS WEEK IN CAL TRACK & FIELD: Members of Cal's track & field team will face off against the best the conference has to offer this weekend at the Pac-12 Championships Saturday and Sunday on the USC campus. Live results will be posted online at pac-12.org, and a tape-delayed broadcast of the championships will air on the Pac-12 Networks on Wednesday, May 15 starting at 6 p.m. PT.
The Bears enter the weekend with 36 marks ranked among the top 10 in the league in 30 different events, including Pac-12 leader Hammed Suleman in the men's triple jump. In addition, Collin Jarvis is the defending champion in the men's 3000-meter steeplechase, and Ray Stewart captured the men's 110-meter hurdles in 2011 before redshirting this past season with a knee injury.
Last year, both the Cal men and women placed 10th at the meet. The Bears, though, already own five points on the women's side due to Jaci Powell's fourth-place finish in the heptathlon May 4-5.
POWELL SETS PR IN HEPTATHLON: Fueled by a lifetime-best efforts in the 100-meter hurdles, 200 meters and javelin, Jaci Powell placed fourth in the Pac-12 heptathlon with a PR 5,351 points last week - the highest finish for a Golden Bear at the meet in eight years. Powell stood in seventh place after the first day of competition, and used her big throw in the javelin (145-4 - #4 all-time at Cal) to surge up the leaderboard. Her point total puts her sixth on the school all-time performer list and is the highest for a Bear since Brooke Meredith scored 5,611 points in 2004. Powell was a two-time state JC heptathlon champion at Golden West College before transferring to Cal this year.
JUMPING FOR JOY: One area to watch for the Bears at the Pac-12 meet is in the jumps, where no less than nine members of the team are ranked among the top 10 in the conference. Cal is strongest in the men's triple jump, where Hammed Suleman is No. 1 (43-4.50), Taylor Kientzel is sixth (50-10.75) and Chad Jones seventh (50-9.50). Kientzel (24-9.25) and Suleman (24-8.25) also rate fourth and fifth, respectively in the long jump.
High jumper Nick Ridge is fifth in the league having cleared 7-3.00i earlier this year, and the list doesn't even include All-American Harrison Steed, who placed sixth at the NCAA meet last year and owns a Cal PR of 7-2.50, or freshman Noel Frazier, who went 6-11.75 back in March.
Among the women, Amanda Hunter enters the weekend third in the Pac-12 in the triple jump having posted a PR 42-0.50 in Sacramento in March, while Malaina Payton is also No. 3 in the long jump with a best of 21-1.50 during her victory at the Big Meet.
BIG MEET WIN FOR CAL MEN: Cal's men's team defeated Stanford, 85-78, to capture the 119th edition of the Big Meet April 20, the Bears first victory in the series since 2006. Cal clinched on the next-to-last event when Hammed Suleman won the triple jump. Suleman also took first in the long jump during the day, while Tom Blocker prevailed in PR times in the 100 (10.51) and 200 (21.23w) and ran a leg on the victorious 4x100-meter relay.
COCHRAN SETS CAL FROSH RECORD: Ethan Cochran, a two-time state discus champion while at Newport Harbor HS, etched his name in the Cal record book with a throw of 188-8 in the discus April 12. The mark broke the seven-year-old school freshman record of 184-8 set by Nate Rolfe and moved Cochran up to 16th in the country in the event at the time (now 22nd). Other than NCAA champion Martin Maric, who threw 201-10 in 2009, no other Bear has thrown further than Cochran since the 1993 season.
ASHE BREAKS FRESHMAN HAMMER MARK: Shelby Ashe, who set the American junior record in the hammer before enrolling at Cal from her home in Stone Mountain, Ga., moved up to No. 3 on the school's all-time list with her freshman-record 201-10 at the Big Meet April 20 Only Jennifer Joyce (Cal PR 214-0 in 2002) and Carrie Johnson (Cal PR 211-5 in 2007) have ever gone further.
TOP 25 BEARS: Nine Golden Bears are ranked among the national top 25 in their respective events, led by Hammed Suleman, who is second in the triple jump with his effort of 53-4.50 from the Texas Relays. Malaina Payton, based on her 21-1.50 long jump at the Big Meet, is also in the top 10 at No. 6.
Ray Stewart 110m Hurdles 13th 13.67
Nick Ridge High Jump 20th 7-1.50
Hammed Suleman Triple Jump 2nd 53-4.50
Ethan Cochran Discus 22nd 188-8
Kelsey Santisteban 5000m 16th 15:50.18
Malaina Payton Long Jump 6th 21-1.50
Amanda Hunter Triple Jump 25th 42-0.50
Shelby Ashe Hammer 21st 201-10
Jaci Powell Heptathlon 23rd 5351
ON THE ALL-TIME CAL LISTS: Although no school records have been set this outdoor season, well over a dozen Cal times and marks have secured spots on the school's top 10 performance list so far in 2013. Those who have earned mention are:
Nick Ridge High Jump 9th 7-3.00i
Hammed Suleman Triple Jump 6th 53-4.50
Ethan Cochran Discus 10th 188-8
Charnell Price 100m 3rd 11.60
Charnell Price 200m 5th 23.50
Kelsey Santisteban 5000m 3rd 15:50.18
Christine Bowlus 3000m Steeple 4th 10:37.77
Molly Babcock 3000m Steeple 6th 11:08.26
Gianna Fernandez High Jump T4th 5-10.50
Malaina Payton Long Jump 3rd 21-1.50
Amanda Hunter Triple Jump 7th 42-0.50
Shelby Ashe Hammer 3rd 201-10
Torie Owers Hammer 8th 181-4
Jaci Powell Javelin 4th 145-4
Jaci Powell Heptathlon 7th 5351
18 BEARS EARN INDOOR ACADEMIC HONORS: A total of 18 Golden Bears earned mention on the 2013 MPSF Indoor All-Academic team - 5 men and 13 women. Among those recognized are four-time honoree Amanda Hunter, three-time winners Taylor Dutch and Gianna Fernandez, and two-time recipients Tom Blocker, Hillary Hayes and Kristin Rimbach. The full list of Cal's 2013 academic team members:
Women Men
Chioma Amaechi Evan Barr
Grace Beaudoin Tom Blocker
Christine Bowlus Matt Carpowich
Taylor Dutch Sullivan Parker
Gianna Fernandez Derek White
Sydney Gray
Hillary Hayes
Amanda Hunter
Taylor Lawson
Sunny Margerum
Laura O'Neill
Kristin Rimbach
Kelsey Santisteban
GOLDEN BEAR NOTES: Matt Petersen (men's cross country), Jonathan Berry-Smith (men's track & field), Deborah Maier (women's cross country) and Nicole Larson (women's track & field) all received Golden Bear Achievement Awards for having the highest GPAs on their respective teams ... Ethan Cochran received the Newcomer of the Year Award as voted by his fellow student-athletes at the Oski's, Cal Athletics' version of the ESPY's ... Rick Brown, the only four-time conference 880-yard champion (1971-74) in Pac-8 history, has been elected to the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the rest of the class in October.
Courtesy CAl
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