DAVIS, Calif. --- Junior Mason Miller led UC Irvine on the first day of the competition in the Big West Conference Championships at UC Davis Friday.

Miller finished third in the shot put with a mark of 56-11 ½ to score six team points for the 'Eaters at Toomey Field and Woody Wilson Track.

Tommy Newton-Neal earned a point for UCI with an eighth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:34.76.

Three Anteaters qualified for Saturday's final in the 400-meter hurdles with Lloyd Sicard (53.45), Cameron Vaca (53.27) and Brandon Howard (54.14) moving on from Friday's prelims.

Sicard was the top qualifier in the 110-meter hurdles with a preliminary time of 14.09 and teammate James Douglas joins him in the final with a qualifying time of 14.53.

Isaiah Thompson qualified for Saturday's final in the 800 meters with a prelim time of 1:51.23 on Friday.

The 'Eaters are eighth with seven points.  Long Beach State is in first with 58 points, Cal Poly second with 51.50 and UC Santa Barbara is third with 45.

Field events begin at 12:00 p.m. Saturday with the first event on the track at 2:08 p.m. when coverage begins on Fox Sports Prime Ticket.

__________________________________________________________

For UC Irvine Athletics ticket information, please call (949) 824-5000 or e-mail athletics.tickets@uci.edu. For more information click here.

For information on how you can help support UC Irvine Athletics, please call (949) 824-6933 or e-mail aaf@uci.edu. For additional information, click here.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.