Coward, Villanueva Lead UC Irvine at Steve Scott Invite

Friday, April 26

Irvine, CA

1:00 PM PT

UC Irvine

Steve Scott Invitational

coward-villanueva-2019-wtrack-steve-scott

Coward, Villanueva Lead UC Irvine at Steve Scott Invite

April 26, 2019 | Women's Track & Field

Live Results

IRVINE, Calif. - Senior Barbara Coward and junior Brianna Villanueva registered the top-two hammer throw marks in program history to lead the UC Irvine women's track & field team Friday at the Steve Scott Invitational.

Coward was one of nine individuals to advance in the hammer competition and entered the final round in sixth place with a best of 182-07 in the third flight. She then saw an improvement of 14 feet on her first attempt in the finals as she broke her own school record with a heave of 196-07. Coward would match that distance on her second throw and hit 194-10 on her last toss of the day.

Villanueva joined Coward in the finals and took fifth overall with a personal-record 186-01. That moves her up three spots to No. 2 in program history. Freshman Tayla Crenshaw was 13th at 156-10.

Sophomore Natalie Koppel had a season-best 18-03.75 to tie for 20th out of 46 in the long jump.

Senior Adrienne Lee also tied for 13th in the pole vault (10-11.75).

On the track, two 'Eaters finished among the top-10 in the 3000m steeplechase with junior Anastasia Karnaze leading the way in sixth place (11:04.64). Junior Mariah Theologidy was eighth with a season-best 11:19.43.

Junior Brenda Dorantes finished seventh in the 5000m with a personal-record 17:47.10. Senior Megan Mirkhanian clocked in at a season-best 18:05.33 to come in ninth, while freshman Perla Aguilar (18:41.36) and junior Keely Boyd (18:41.43) were 15th and 16th, respectively.

UC Irvine returns to Anteater Stadium in full force tomorrow for the second and final day of the Steve Scott Invitational starting with the 4x100 relay at 12 p.m.