SEATTLE – Cal State Fullerton women's track and field kicked off the 2019 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships on Friday with a new school record in the distance medley relay. Competition resumes on Saturday at 10 a.m. PT.
The quartet of Sandra Flores (3:34.25, 1,200 meters), Mia Franco (56.20, 400 meters), Samantha Huerta (2:09.29, 800 meters) and Trinity Ruelas (5:00.68, 1,600 meters) clocked a time of 11:41.06 to beat the previous record of 12:02.04 set at the UW Invitational in 2018.
"They just crushed it," head coach John Elders said. "Sandra ran 3:34 for the opening 1,200-meter leg which was great. It went out really hard and she was struggling a bit at the end but she didn't realize how fast she was going so she did a great job. Mia Franco ran the 400-meter split in 56.2, her best split ever so that was awesome. Samantha ran just under 2:10 in the 800 meters and then Trinity ran basically 5:00 for the 1,600-meter leg, which was about five seconds faster than she ran mile earlier this year so it was a great race for all four of the ladies."
In the sprints, Hailey Murdica led the Titans in the 60-meter dash preliminary round with a time of 7.72, her second-best time of the season and just off her personal best of 7.69. She also ran the 200 meters and clocked a personal-best time of 25.22. Tatiana Bell (7.78, 25.84) and Alayah Byers (7.88, 25.77) ran both the 60 and 200 meters as well.
Mariah Stewart posted a personal-best time of 8.73 in the 60-meter hurdles preliminary round, besting her previous PR of 8.81. She also ran the 60 meters (7.97) and the 200 meters (26.13). Kyra Anderson posted times of 7.87 in the 60 meters and 8.85 in the 60-meter hurdles.
"She had quite a trip," Elders said. "Unfortunately, she had car issues on Thursday morning and she missed the team's flight. Fortunately, her dad was able to get her on a plane up here and even with all of that stress she was able to run a personal best so that's nice for her to have a pick-me-up like that."
Lucina Vincent just missed a personal best in the 5K with a time of 17:41.60 (previous PR was 17:41.31). Tammy Vien finished her first-ever pentathlon with a score of 2,283 points and Onyx Gaston long jumped 15-10.5 (4.84m).
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