It was a good weekend for the track and field team as the men's team added a fifth consecutive title in the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship held at Cal State L.A.'s Jesse Owens Track.
The women's team finished second behind UC San Diego. The men's head coach, Kirk Freitas was also honored at the event when he was named coach of the year.
"I wish (the league) would just give the award to the whole coaching staff or the school," Freitas said. "We're all working together and making it a group effort for the team."
The Thursday meet started strong for the men's team when Jake Nelson, Robert Nooney and Brian Beeman finished first, second and third, respectively, following five events in the decathlon. Rebecca Moyneur and Kelly Clancey placed sixth and seventh following four events in the women's opening day heptathlon.
"We're proud of our performances. It's hard to see us doing any better than we did," women's head coach Oliver Hanf said. "We started this journey in September, and we point specifically towards this weekend - the final destination for the team."
On Friday the 'Cats vaulted into first place on both the men's and women's side, following the Wildcats' only two-event winner for the day, Nicole Barbour. Barbour took the discus crown in her first throw of 42.10 meters and won the shot put with her third throw of 13.34 meters.
"I was totally relaxed. I wasn't nervous - just taking it as another track meet," Barbour said. "But deep down I knew I had to perform and just let it happen when it was my turn."
Saturday's final performances included first-place finishes by Jordan Fairley in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, Angel Marquez in the 5,000-meter run and Zach Buchanan's 4.94-meter provisional mark in the pole vault.
Scott Bauhs defended his title in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3 minutes, 57.04 seconds to seal the top spot for the men's team with 230 points.
For the women's it was Lindsey Brown, who won the 800-meter race with a time of 2:15.70, and Kayla Silva, winning the 1,500-meter race at 4:43.76, who kept the women's team in contention for the top spot.
The UC San Diego women's team finished first with 248 points, while Chico State finished with 199 points.
"In 2005 we scored 198 points, the year that we lost the championship by 1.5 points," Hanf said. "So finishing one shy of 200, which is a goal we set at the beginning of the season, shows we had one of the best meets we ever had even though we didn't win the championship."
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