FULLERTON, Calif. - Cal State Fullerton men's and women's track and field compete at the UCSD Triton Invitational and UCLA's Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational. Marcel Espinoza highlighted the weekend with his school-record breaking performance in the men's 400-meter sprint.
"We did not have a full squad today but we had a lot of positive performances, especially in the sprints and hurdles and I think we got better as a team," head coach John Elders said.
Espinoza clocked a time of 46.13 to take first place in the event, breaking Darion Zimmerman's record of 46.86 set in 2017. In that same event, Parris Samaniego (47.27) and Chris Shiley (47.77) both posted season-best times.
"He crushed it, that's a top 20 mark in the county and 10th in the region right now so that's huge," Elders said. "He took it out hard and crushed it. The men's 4x4 also went and had a season-best time so that was good."
Samaniego, Shiley, Charles Kelly and Espinoza clocked a season-best time of 3:10.11 to win the 4x400-meter relay.
Kelly also ran the 400-meter hurdles in a personal-best time of 52.65 with Diego Courbis right behind in a season-best time of 52.88. Kyra Anderson's 100-meter hurdles time of 14.07 was a season-best mark and good for a runner-up finish.
Iesha Hamm won the women's high jump competition with a clearance of 5-8 (1.73m). On the men's side, Marcel Sylvester finished in third place with a mark of 6-7.5 (2.02m).
"She had some strong attempts," Elders said. "She's ready to jump really high and I think today gave her some confidence. On the men's side, Marcel has been very consistent lately. He's looking for more from himself but he's been consistent thus far."
In the women's long jump, Naiah Boardingham's mark of 18-11.75 (5.78m) was good for a victory, despite being a foot behind the board. Christian Wood had what Elders called a breakthrough with his mark of 22-6.25 (6.86m) in the men's long jump. Desran Desir also made his season debut with a jump of 22-4.5 (6.82m), which was the best season-opening mark of his career as he just return from injury.
Mia Franco (56.68) and Morgan Love (56.95) finished fifth and sixth in the women's 400-meter sprint.
"Morgan has had a strong couple of weeks and is doing well this year," Elders said.
Madison Moku clocked a 400-meter hurdles time of 62.83 to take third place overall.
"Madison had a huge breakthrough in the 400-meter hurdles today and had a big personal best," Elders said. "That's really good for her, she needed that breakthrough and hopefully she keeps it going.
Erick Juarez recorded a season-best time of 1:54.89 in the men's 800-meter race.
At the UCSD Triton Invitational, Trevor Gorwin had a hammer throw of 186-1 (56.73m) to take 11th place in the invitational section. He also took 17th place in the shot put invitational section with a toss of 50-6.75 (15.41m). Patrick Ng's season-best toss of 51-7 (15.72m) in the shot put placed him 12th in the open section.
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