Long Beach State Hosts the Big West Challenge

4/5/2017 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field

April 5, 2017

Long Beach State Hosts the Big West Challenge
The Long Beach State track and field team returns home to Jack Rose Track after spending the majority of March on the road. The Beach will host the Big West Challenge on Friday, April 7 as Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara come to Long Beach, Calif. for the 25th annual meet which begins with the field events at 1:45 p.m.

About The Big West Challenge
The Big West Challenge is in its 25th season and the Long Beach State men's team has dominated the meet in the last decade. The men's squad is looking for its 10th-straight victory in the four-team Big West Field. The women's squad is looking for its third victory in four years after placing second a year ago.

Schedule of Events
The Big West Challenge will begin with the field events as the women's javelin opens the meet with a start time of 1:45 p.m. The track events will begin at 3:30 p.m. with the women's 4x100-meter relay. The day will come to an end with the final event, the men's 4x400m relay, scheduled for a 6:41 p.m. start time.

Senior Recognition
Long Beach State will honor its 17 seniors on Friday at the Big West Challenge. The Beach will recognize a dozen from the men's team in Sam Bautista, Xander Cooper, A.J. Elam, Diego Felix. Bo Haddock, James Hubbard, Kaden Lapham, Robert Marlow, George Martinez, Emilio Nunez, Paul Thenard and Daniel York-Mouton. Five senior members of the women's squad will also be honored in Riley Cooks, Shelby Crider, Savanah Lear, Taylor Lorack and Pauline Mandel.

About Long Beach State
Long Beach State continues its solid effort in the outdoor season as the Beach are coming off a competitive week in the state of Texas where they posted several strong showings at the Texas Relays and the Bobcat Invitational.

Following those two meets, the Beach have a total of seven athletes ranking in the top 20 in the nation with the men's team boasting five and the women's team with two.

Kemonie Briggs, who previously led the country in the long jump, is now second in the nation with a distance of 7.99m (26-02.75). He set that mark during the first week of the outdoor season in the LBSU-UCLA Dual Invitational. Despite being second in the country, Briggs still owns the top mark in the Big West Conference.

Ranking 13th in the country in the hammer throw is senior Robert Marlow. He launched his season-best mark of 66.94m (219-07.00) in the Trojan Invitational and has since been ranked in the top 15 in the nation.

Junior jumper Vincent Calhoun has also been on point for the Beach this season as he owns a season-best mark of 2.15m (7-00.50) in the high jump to come in 15th in the country. He set that mark just last weekend at the competitive Texas Relays.

Also ranking 15th in the nation for the Beach is Josh Carr whose heave of 56.70m (186-00.00) in the discus throw has been a top 15 ranking since the first week of the season.

Rounding out the men's top 20 athletes is Cole Hicks who won the decathlon at the UCR Spring Break Invitational with a total of 6,826 points. His point total is good for 17th in the nation.

On the women's side, senior Riley Cooks leads the way with her season-best 5,432 points in the heptathlon. Her total points at the UCR Spring Break Invitational earned her a second-place finish in the meet and moved her into ninth place in the country.

Lastly, sophomore Bria Palmer is the final Beach student-athlete ranked in the top 20 in the nation as she is 18th in the high jump with a mark of 1.76m (5-09.25).

Up Next
Long Beach State continues its home stretch as it hosts the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate and the Beach Invitational next week. The Pacific Coast Intercollegiate is a one-day meet which will take place on Thursday, April 13, while the Beach Invitational is a two-day competition which begins Friday, April 14 and concludes Saturday, April 15. Both meets will take place at Jack Rose Track on the Long Beach State campus.