FULLERTON, Calif. - Samantha Huerta broke her own school record in the mile highlight the Ben Brown Invitational for the Cal State Fullerton men's and women's outdoor track and field teams.
"We had good weather so that's good and for the most part I thought it went well," said head coach John Elders on hosting the first of three meets this season. "We didn't compete everybody today but I thought it was another big step forward for us and we're just going to keep trying to get better every week."
Huerta made her outdoor season debut and clocked a mile time of 4:46.77 to win the race and break her own school record of 4:48.02 set in 2018. Also in the women's distance races, Trinity Ruelas and Alyssa Block went 1-2 in the 5K, clocking sub-17:00 times for the first time in their DI careers. Ruelas won with a time of 16:57.12 while Block crossed the line in 16:59.83.
Charles Kelly had what Elders labeled a breakthrough performance with his win in the 110-meter hurdles in a personal-best time of 14.29 (+1.5 wind). Mariah Stewart won the women's 100-meter hurdles as well with a personal-best time 14.36 (+1.3 wind).
Shelby Noble cleared 12-7.5 (3.85m) in the pole vault to take second place overall. Her personal-best clearance of 3.85m significantly bested her previous best of 3.70m.
"She competed really well and cleared that on her third attempt so that was awesome to see," Elders said. "I'm very proud of her and that's a big breakthrough for her."
Sierra Valdivieso's personal-best toss of 165-5 (50.42m) in the discus was good for third place overall. Bertha Sola took sixth place in the event with a mark of 156-3 (47.64m). On the men's side, Connor Anderson posted personal-best marks in both the discus (158-4, 48.25m) and hammer (178-10 (54.51m).
Parris Samaniego ran the 100-meter dash in 10.84 (+1.7 wind) to take 10th place overall.
"Parris is more of a 200-400m guy but he ran a strong time in the 100 meters and that's nice to see from him in his first college meet," Elders said.
The Titans resume the season next week with split-squad action between the UC Irvine Collegiate Classic and Arizona State's Baldy Castillo Invitational.
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