FULLERTON, Calif. – Cal State Fullerton track and field hosted the Titan Team Challenge on Saturday afternoon and the squad's second home meet of the season was highlighted by Samantha Huerta breaking her own school record and setting the No. 2 time in the 800 meters in the NCAA for the year at 2:04.33.
Huerta won the race by roughly seven seconds as second place came in at 2:11.09. She beat her previous personal best and school record time of 2:07.36, which came at the 2018 Titan Team Challenge. Her time is tops in the Big West, in the NCAA West Region and No. 2 in the NCAA overall (per TFRRS heading into today's competitions).
Sandra Flores also picked up a win in the women's 1,500-meter race with a personal-best time of 4:29.60, beating her previous best by roughly three seconds.
"We had planned on running fast no matter what the competition did," head coach John Elders said. "I wanted Samantha and Sandra to control the race and they executed perfectly. They ran great races without having anybody to push them really."
Iesha Hamm (5-9.25/1.76m) and Marcel Sylvester (6-9/2.06m) both won their respective high jump competitions as Hamm posted a season-best clearance while Sylvester's was a personal-best. Hamm's mark is tops in the conference while Sylvester's ranks second.
Nicole Clark and Kelsey McKelvey went 1-2 in the women's javelin with respective marks of 152-3 (46.41m) and 138-5 (42.20m). Also in the throws, Bertha Sola and Sierra Valdivieso went 1-2 in the women's discus. Sola had a big PR, throwing 161-11 (49.36m) while Valdiveso threw 159-6 (48.61m).
Head coach John Elders on today's Titan Team Challenge. #TusksUp pic.twitter.com/seRJYQ41ca
— Titans Track & Field (@FullertonTFXC) March 30, 2019
The quartet of Parris Samaniego, Rasaun House, Mason Rollins and Marcel Espinoza clocked a season-best time of 40.33 in the men's 4x100-meter relay to take first place. At 40.54, the Titans already held the top time in the Big West and now just improved it. Espinoza also posted a personal-best in the 400-meter race, breaking 47 for the first time with his mark of 46.93 to take first place overall. Samaniego was right behind him at 47.01 in second place. Rollins won the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.58 against a 2.0 head wind while House was third at 10.80. Rollins then won the 200 meters with a personal-best time of 21.23 (-1.4 wind).
"The men's 400-meter times are the top two times in the conference so that's big time for Marcel and Parris," Elders said.
In the hurdles on the men's side, Charles Kelly (14.36, +0.4 wind) and Sam Schubert (14.99, +0.4 wind) went 1-2 in the 110-meter distance. Diego Courbis won at the 400-meter distance with a season-best time of 53.16.
Samaniego, Chris Shiley, Kelly and Espinoza won the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:13.84.
Trevor Gorwin won the men's hammer throw with a toss of 194-3 (59.21m) while on the women's side Sinai Fatafehi had a personal-best mark of 171-0 (52.13m) to take fourth place.
Naiah Boardingham made her season debut and took second place in the women's long jump with a mark of 18-10.5 (5.75m, 0.0 wind).
The season resumes on Friday at the Big West Challenge which is hosted by UC Santa Barbara.
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