Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
Big West Multis
LBSU's Riley Cooks Claims Big West Heptathlon Title
5/7/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Big West Decathlon Results 
| Big West Heptathlon Results | Photo Gallery 
LONG BEACH - Junior Riley Cooks led the Long Beach State track and field team on the final day of the Big West Multi-Event Championships as she claimed the conference's heptathlon title Saturday at Jack Rose Track.
Cooks accumulated 5,414 points over the two days to finish first out of 17 athletes. She was 290 points ahead of runner-up Tayler Fleming from UC Riverside. Cooks is LBSU's sixth Big West champion in the heptathlon, and first since 2004.
In the decathlon, sophomore Herman Day was locked in a back-and-forth battle with UC Santa Barbara's Tyler Nelson through most of the meet. It came down to the final event where Nelson (7,220) barely edged out Day for the top spot. Day was the runner-up with 7,198 points, improving on his fifth-place finish from last year. Freshman John Broadhead also compiled a personal-record 6,186 points to come in 11th overall.
"We're always talking about effort and heart, and when you see that laid out there like these guys did this weekend, I'm as proud as I possibly can be," head coach Andy Sythe said. "Being at the top of the conference and coming in with the leading marks, we had targets on our backs, so it was good to see how they handled that and kept composed."
Cooks placed among the top-four in six of the seven events and had three individual victories. On Saturday, she finished ahead of the pack in the javelin with a toss of 129-03. Cooks also came in fourth in the long jump (18-01.25) and 11th in the 800m (2:36.21). On Friday, she won the 100m hurdles in a personal-best 13.6 seconds and the 200m in 24.12 seconds.
"Riley just commands, so she'll take that into next week, and hopefully our women will follow suit," Sythe said. "We're also excited she picked up an NCAA Regional mark in the hurdle race with her 13.60."
Day clocked in at 15.27 seconds to finish third in the 110m hurdles. He also tied for third in the pole vault (13-09.5) and was fifth in the discus, matching his lifetime best at 130-02. Day then battled through an injury to close out the meet with a 10th-place showing in the javelin (155-05) and an eighth-place performance in the 1500m (4:52.93). His time in the 1500 was a personal best.
Broadhead's best finish of the afternoon was in the 1500m where he took fifth with a personal-record 4:49.65. Broadhead also placed ninth in the discus (104-08) and tied for 10th in the pole vault with a lifetime-best 11-09.75.
"The fact that we didn't come out with the win in the decathlon doesn't change anything because it's about that battle and fight that you have to have," Sythe said. "Those were two points that we wanted, but the tone has been set for next weekend."
Long Beach State continues the Big West Track & Field Championships next weekend with the main events set to run, May 13-14, at Jack Rose Track.
Players Mentioned
