Big West Championships
Dates: May 13-15 (Thursday-Saturday)
Location: Anteater Stadium (Spectators not permitted)
Live Stream: BigWest.tv
Live Results // Meet Schedule // Championship Central

Notes (PDF)

IRVINE, Calif. - Big West Championship weekend is here for the UC Irvine women's track & field team which will host the conference meet at Anteater Stadium, May 13-15. Action gets underway on Thursday with the hammer throw at 10 a.m., and will continue through Saturday with the 4x400 closing out the championships at 4:30 p.m. Twenty-two 'Eaters are scheduled to compete over the course of the three-day meet. No spectators or media are allowed in Anteater Stadium in accordance with campus COVID-19 guidelines.
 
QUICK HITS
• UC Irvine has one of its larger rosters in recent history with 28 returners and 26 newcomers.
• Eight 'Eaters have combined for 12 marks that rank among the program's all-time top-10 this year.
• Kayla Richardson has run the Anteaters' second-fastest 200m (23.90) and fifth-fastest 100m (11.80).
• Hannah Chau has also established UCI's fifth-best 10K (35:36.35) and eighth-best 5K (16:46.61) times.
• Brianna Villanueva bettered her No. 2 all-time mark in the hammer by two feet with a toss of 188-01 at the OC Dual.
• Tayla Crenshaw etched her name in the record books in the shot (43-11.75), discus (164-02) and hammer (173-11).
• Deandra Tyler (44-00.5) also moved up to No. 6 in program history in the shot put at the LBSU Throws Fest.
• Kassidy Sani cracked the all-time top-10 in the discus with a lifetime-best 151-04.
• Lorraine Nance won the triple jump at the Ben Brown Invite with a PR 39-03, which ranks sixth in school history.
• Carly Johnson's PR 128-10 in the javelin is the program's eighth-best mark since the specifications changed in 1999.
• UC Irvine has two sets of siblings on its roster - Zani Meaders and Zoi Meaders, and Chaselyn Amos and Shaelyn Amos.
 
LAST TIME OUT
UCI closed out the regular season with a handful of top performances at the UC Riverside/Long Beach State split meet two weeks ago. The distance runners kicked things off in Riverside with Hannah Chau winning the 5000m in a personal-record 16:46.61. Cathy Salazar-Gasca also had a top-three showing in the 800m with a lifetime-best and Big West qualifying time of 2:14.31. In the sprints, Kayla Richardson was the 200m champion as she crossed the finish line at 23.90, improving her No. 2 time in program history by .04 seconds. Over at the LBSU Throws/Jumps Fest, Brianna Villanueva was the only competitor to surpass 180 feet in the hammer, taking top honors at 184-00. Deandra Tyler (44-00.5) and Tayla Crenshaw (43-11.75) also notched PRs in the shot put to come in second and third, respectively. Natalie Koppel added an individual victory in the long jump where she registered a wind-aided personal-best 19-10.25.
 
BIG WEST LEADER
Kayla Richardson enters the Big West Championships as the top seed in both the 100m (11.80) and 200m (23.90). Her times are personal collegiate bests and rank among the top-five in school history. Richardson's 200m mark puts her at No. 2 on UCI's all-time charts as she joined 2016 Olympian Persis William-Mensah as the only two 'Eaters in program history to run a sub-24 second race. The Walnut, Calif., native has a pair of individual victories in both events this year, including in each of her last two 200m outings. On March 30, Richardson was the first Anteater to be named the Big West Women's Track Athlete of the Week since 2016, and went on to earn the award again on April 28. She is a graduate transfer from USC where she was a 2017 NCAA West Preliminary qualifier in the 400m, and set the Philippines' national record with a time of 53.81 at the Mt. SAC Relays.
 
BACK FOR MORE
Brianna Villanueva is making the most out of the NCAA's decision to grant an extra year of eligibility to the 2020 spring sport student-athletes who saw their season canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fifth-year senior has eight individual victories and is currently second in the Big West in the discus and hammer with a season-best 161-10 and a personal-record 188-01, respectively. Villanueva is a two-time All-Big West performer, earning the recognition with third-place finishes in both events at the 2019 conference championships. The 2021 team captain ranks second in school history in the hammer (188-01) and fifth in the discus (163-10). Cecily Montanez also returned for a fifth year and has established lifetime bests in both the 400m (57.96) and 400m hurdles (62.51). Her 400H time is No. 4 in the Big West this season.
 
TRIPLE THREAT
Junior Tayla Crenshaw is a triple threat in the shot put, discus and hammer as she ranks among UCI's all-time top-10 in each of the three events. This year, she has established lifetime-bests of 43-11.75 in the shot (7th), 164-02 in the discus (4th), and 173-11 in the hammer (6th).
 
GOING THE DISTANCE
Junior Hannah Chau is the Anteaters' top distance runner with team season bests in the 5000m and 10000m. On April 2, she established the fifth-best 10K time (35:36.25) in program history at the Sound Running Collegiate Invite, while she also ran UCI's seventh-fastest 5K (16:46.61) at the UCR Distance Invitational two weeks ago. As a freshman in 2019, Chau was the first 'Eater to score in both events at the Big West Championships in six years. She was also an All-Big West performer in cross country as a sophomore. 
 
UP NEXT
The NCAA West Preliminary Round will be held at Texas A&M, May 26-29. The top-48 declared student-athletes in each individual event and the top-24 declared relay teams will be accepted into the competition. The Preliminary Round selections will be announced May 20 on NCAA.com.