With the women’s and men’s track and field season coming to an end, the Cougars competed at the Triton Invitational held at UCSD.

The Cougars had a remarkable day at the Triton Invitational due to 24 personal records, more qualifiers for California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championships and an overall outstanding team effort.

There are now 43 CSUSM student-athletes that are qualified for CCAA Championships. Tyler Luis became the 43rd student-athlete to qualify with his personal best of 11.23 in the 100m and another personal best of 22.88 in the 200m.

For the women’s team, Lauren Wyckoff qualified for the 200m with a personal record of 25.78. She previously qualified for the 400m with a time of 58.86 at the Ross and Sharon Irwin Collegiate Scoring Meet.

In the 800m event, Elizabeth Buckle won her heat and set a season personal record with a time of 2:14.74. She qualified for CCAA Championships for the 800m with a time of 2:15.26 from a previous Invitational.

Lisa Flora has also qualified for the 800m with a personal record of 2:22.18. Arianna Garcia-Swantek qualified as well with a time of 2:22.58.

Sophomore Natalie Rodriguez ran a season-best for the women’s 1500m with a time of 4:36.09 to finish fifth. She has qualified for the 800m (2:16.65), 1500m (4:37.24) and the 5000m (16:59.92).  

For the men’s 1500m event, junior Chris Ceja ran a personal record and qualified for CCAA Championships with a time of 4:08.10 and also qualified in the 5000m. Senior Fereon Meferia also set a personal record and qualified in the same event with a time of 4:08.64 and also qualified in the 800m.

For the throwing events, Junior Josh Maffei qualified for shot put with a throw of 12.50m. He is also qualified in the discus with a throw of 43.30m/142’1″.

Head Track and Field Coach Steve Scott said he is excited to see his athletes compete at CCAA Championships this year and said he feels as though they have a real shot.

“I feel as if our athletes are prepared for CCAA Championships. We have a lot of athletes who are in the top 10 in multiple events, which is very exciting. You have to wait till the end to see where we would stack up against the other teams and I think that we would be in the top seven or eight in terms of teams scorer, which in our first year in Division II, that is tremendous,” said Scott.

Frederik Jahr is ranked fourth in the CCAA ranks for high jump with a jump of 2.01m at 6’7” high. For the men’s 4×4, Fereon Meferia, Justin Washington, Matt Doyle and Aaron Hickman are ranked fifth with a time of 3:21.97.

On the women’s side for CCAA rankings, junior Raelyn Werley is ranked third for the 10,000m with a time of 35:53.99. Senior Charlotte Kuzminsky is fourth for the 800m with a time of 2:13.47.

With the regular season coming to an end, the Cougars look to continue their success at their very own head coaches invitational. The Steve Scott Invitational will be held at 11 a.m. on April 20 in Irvine.