KNIGHTS HOLD THEIR OWN AGAINST D-1 COMPETITION

photo by Mike Daly

DAVIS, Calif. – Shasta College's track and field team earned several top 10 finishes against NCAA Division I competition at the Aggie Open Saturday at UC Davis.

Leading the way was sophomore Claire Walton, who took fourth in the shot put with a throw of 37 feet, 9.25 inches, 10th in the javelin (78-9), turned in a season-best 11th in the hammer throw (104-10) and 14th in the discus (95-10).

Although the Knights didn't win any of the events, they placed in the top five in seven events.

"The Aggie open was an excellent opportunity for our team to compete against four-year Division I athletes," said Bryon Hamilton, Shasta College head track and field coach. "I was very proud of how many of our athletes competed at such a high level."

MEN

Shasta's 4x100 relay team of Kenio Mike Jr., Cody Beaumont, Peter Savride and Chris Rosero was fourth in 43.91 seconds.

In the running events, Rosero was sixth in the 200-meter dash (22.62) and 10th in the 100 (11.17), Samuel Grafe was sixth in the 2,000 steeplechase and 11th in the 3,000 (10:01.70), and Caleb Tolbertson was 10th in the 400 hurdles (1:08.43).

Beaumont led the way for the Knights in the field events, taking fifth in the long jump (22-3) and sixth in the triple jump (45-2.25). Karnell Calloway was fifth in the high jump (5-4.25), Conor Nix was sixth in the high jump (5-2.25) and 15th in the pole vault (10-8), Savride was seventh in the high jump (5-0.25) and seventh in the javelin (43.67).

In pole vault, Patrick Bigalow was seventh (14-9.5), Erik Valdez was eighth (13-7.25) and Joseph Williams was 16th (10-2).

Creed Stedman was 14th in the triple jump (38-3.5) and Ashton Vanzant was 16th in the long jump (19-11.75).

For the throwers, Cole Parker was third in the shot put (42-4.25), eighth in the discus (121-11) and ninth in the javelin (137-6); Payton Harrell was fifth in the shot put (39-9.75), sixth in the discus (127-7), eighth in the hammer throw (96-0); Aedan Slack was sixth in the hammer throw (134-4), seventh in both the shot put (38-0) and the discus (125-0); Derek Bruner was eighth in the shot put (35-6.5) and 11th in the discus (94-0); and Justin Hellyer was sixth in the javelin (148-8).

WOMEN

Cassie Young was the most notable Knight, taking fifth in the high jump (4-11.5) and eighth in the pole vault (10-0).

Julia Hill was a top competitor in field events, finishing seventh in the javelin (87-0) and 10th in the long jump (14-9.75), Madison Barragan was 11th in the long jump (13-7.5), Maddison Smedley was 12th in the pole vault (7-6.5), Regin Loftin was 13th in the javelin (72-5), and Alyson Zuidema was 16th in the hammer throw (82-3), 19th in the shot put (25-4.75) and 20th in the discus (72-0).

Julie Bradley was third in the 2,000 steeplechase (9:42.82), 18th in the 3,000 (13:33.52), Kayla Bickford was eighth in the 400 hurdles (1:20.47), 12th in the 100 hurdles (20.84), 20th in the 100 (14.03), and Julisa Wold was 15th in the 100 (13.18).

Shasta College takes this weekend off before heading to Arcata for the Humboldt State Invite on March 24.