| Track to Host LB Classic This Saturday
Beach Host Second Outdoor Meet at Jack Rose Track March 13, 2002
Beach Host LB Classic: This Saturday The Beach will host the Long Beach Classic at the Jack Rose Track across from The Pyramid. This year’s meet will feature fellow Division-I foes: Air Force, Colgate, Cornell, George Mason, Hawaii, Kentucky, UC Riverside, USC, Southern Utah, Utah, and Yale. Junior Colleges in attendance are: LA Southwest, Orange Coast, Pasadena and Riverside.
The Coach: Director Andy Sythe is in his 13th season as director of both the track and field and cross country programs. During Sythe’s tenure, 49er track athletes have achieved 73 NCAA qualifying performances, 55 conference champions, had 18 All-Americans, three Big West Athletes of-the-year, one NCAA national champion and another NCAA runner-up.
Traveling the Country: Jon O’Neil (Fountain Valley) and Connie Jerz (Tucson, AZ) racked up the frequent flyer miles to end the indoor season. After competing at the MPSF Championships in Flagstaff, AZ on February 21, the duo traveled to New York City the next week for the USATF Championsips, followed by a trip to the NCAA Championships, hosted by Arkansas the week after.
At the USATFs, O’Neil finished 10th in the shot and 17th in the weight, while Jerz was fifth in the pole vault. Jerz finished 15th at her second NCAA event the following week, while O’Neil was 14th in the shot put at his fourth NCAA Championship.
Leap of Forsythe: Freshman Emily Forsythe (Montrose, CA) lept to fourth place finish at the MPSF Indoor Championships with a height of 5’8.75”. With the jump, Forsythe was able to raise her personal-best by 4 inches from one week to the next.
Bating Them On: Fellow freshman Matt Bates (Los Gatos, CA) finished second in the 800m at the MPSF Indoor Championships. His time was 1:54.83. Bates had won his first two 800m races, before finishing second at the MPSFs.
Strong Performance at MPSFs: Brian Stehmeier (800m, 10th), Daniel Gerlach (long jump, 8th), Jessica Williams (400m, 10th), Hilly Lipscomb (long jump, 10th), Gladys Iwuaba (triple jump, 6th) Shannon Daniels (weight, 8th) and Kenya Jimerson (triple jump, 7th) all finished in the top-10 of their respective events at the MPSF Indoor Championsips.
CROSS COUNTRY: Drea Palacio (Fresno), with a 10th place finish (18:49.9) at the Big West Championship 5K on October 27 became the first all-conference runner for The Beach since 1993. The team’s sixth place showing was also the highest since 1993. For the men, they finished eighth with Aaron Durham finishing in 28th place (27:22.4).
NCAA REGIONAL CROSS COUNTRY: This year the men finished 15th, while the women were 17th. |
