DAVIS, Calif. --- Senior Lacey Surak and junior Itos Aikhionbare won events Friday in the Big West Conference Championships at Toomey Field and Woody Wilson Track in Davis.

Surak successfully defended her conference title in the javelin with a mark of 152-3 on her final throw of the competition.

"I'm really blessed to be here," Surak said.  "I didn't come out the way I usually do. I didn't come out ready to go and I just had to go and I had to fight. The last throw, the pressure was on so I knew my last throw had to be it because that was the last chance."

Aikhionbare won the discus throw with a mark of 167-9 as she earned her first Big West title.

Freshman Ariel Cheng recorded a personal-best mark in finishing second in the pole vault at 12-8 ¼, improving on her No. 2 mark in the Anteater record book.

Sophomore Melanie Speech finished fifth in the javelin with a personal-best throw of 137-3 to improve on her No. 8 mark in UCI history.

In the hammer throw, Bridget Devaney placed eighth with a mark of 164-4.

A trio of UCI student-athletes qualified for Saturday's final in the 100-meter hurdles as Megan George (13.83), Paige Bushnell (14.00) and Megan Benson (14.06) moved on out of Friday's preliminaries.

Three from UCI also advanced to Saturday's final in the 400-meter hurdles as Kaulyn Lee-McNeill (61.30), Ericka Nowell (62.17) and Bushnell (62.50) qualified after Friday's prelims.

Chelsea Schneider moved on to the final in the 800 meters after a qualifying time of 2:14.66 Friday.

UCI is fourth with 37 points entering the final day of competition Saturday.  Cal State Northridge leads with 72.33, UC Davis is second with 53 and UC Santa Barbara third with 41.

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

       Itos Aikhionbare and Lacey Surak won titles Friday at the Big West Championships in Davis.

             Ariel Cheng finished second in the pole vault with a personal-best mark of 12-8 1/4
                                             at the Big West Championships Friday.

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