RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The UC Irvine women's track & field team had a strong all-around day at the UCR Spring Classic Invitational where they picked up two event wins, four personal bests and 12 season bests Saturday in Riverside.
Sophomore Barbara Coward earned her fourth consecutive victory in the discus with a toss of 177-11. The school record holder was over 27 feet better than the runner-up to remain unbeaten this year. Freshman Brianna Villanueva also registered a season-best 146-07 to take fourth, while junior Alison Meegan was ninth with a season-best 130-01.
In addition, Coward led the 'Eaters in the hammer throw with a fourth-place finish (163-10), and junior Raena Ramirez took fourth in the javelin (131-09).
For the third weekend in a row, sophomore Elizabeth Akindele set a personal record in the shot put as she won the event with a toss of 46-10.00. It was her second individual victory of the year. Senior Melanie Speech added a lifetime-best 44-09.50 to claim runner-up honors. Akindele and Speech rank fourth and fifth in program history, respectively.
Senior Ariel Cheng cleared a season-best 12-05.50 to finish third in the pole vault. Cheng, who has made a height improvement in every meet this year, was one of only three competitors to surpass the 12-foot mark on Saturday. Sophomore Adrienne Lee chipped in a season-best 10-11.75.
On the track, senior Megan George was the top finisher in the 100m hurdles, clocking in at a season-best 13.76. Freshmen Iyana Cooksey (15.02) and Imani Jones (15.40) contributed a couple of top-10 showings.
Junior Persis William-Mensah took second in the 200m as she ran a season-best 24.30. Senior Crystal Lizaola was also the runner-up in the 400m hurdles with a personal-record 60.72. Her time moved her up one spot to No. 9 among UCI's all-time leaders. Junior Tyra Jones and freshman Cecily Montanez also tallied season bests with Jones coming in fourth (62.19) and Montanez in 11th (65.92).
Sophomore Hope Bushnell placed third out of 25 in the 100m dash as she ran a lifetime-best 11.97, which is tied for ninth in school history.
In the distance events, freshman Anastasia Karnaze was fifth in the mile (5:04.77), while the 'Eaters finished seventh through 10th in the 3000m. Junior Jenessa Reyes led the pack at 10:32.44. Senior Aliya Shah followed with a lifetime-best 10:33.63, while sophomore Megan Mirkhanian (10:35.27) and senior Courtney Sharar (10:41.49) rounded out the group.
Senior Saniya Syed, George, Lizaola and Montanez wrapped up the meet with a third-place showing in the 4x400 (3:50.57).
UC Irvine will be back in action on Saturday, April 1, when it heads to Sacramento for the Mondo Team Challenge.
