Complete Results
IRVINE, Calif. - The UC Irvine women's track & field team had six podium finishes, including four event wins, on the final day of the Big West Championships Saturday at Anteater Stadium.
The 'Eaters placed fourth in the team standings with 123 points. It was their best conference finish since 2014 and their highest point total since 1996.
UCI also racked up the individual awards with
Kayla Richardson being named the Women's Track Athlete of the Meet and
Brianna Villanueva being tabbed the Women's Field Athlete of the Meet.
"I'm so proud of the young ladies, especially having Kayla and Brianna winning the Athlete of the Meet awards," said head coach
Jeff Perkins. "It's fun to see them recognized by the conference, as well as the other institutions' coaches since they were the ones who voted.
"We were determined to go out and try to win a team championship on the women's side, and unfortunately we didn't have enough steam there at the very end. I'd be remiss to say that I wasn't a little disappointed, but at the end of the day, we're competitive coaches and it just didn't happen. But, we're really young so we have a bright future and I'm excited to see what we're going to bring the next couple years."
Kayla Richardson accounted for 20 individual points and also contributed to 18 points in the relays. She became the Anteaters' second Big West double champion in the 100m and 200m, joining Desiree Bracey (1991) in elite company. In the 100m, Richardson matched her lifetime best at 11.65, which moved her up to No. 2 on UC Irvine's all-time charts. She also registered a winning 200m time of 24.11. In the relays, Richardson ran the second leg of the first-place 4x100, while anchoring the second-place 4x400.
Brianna Villanueva scored 18 points for the 'Eaters in the throws. She claimed the discus title, winning the event with a personal-record 165-03. Villanueva led wire-to-wire, taking the lead on her first attempt before hitting her top mark of the day on her sixth and final throw. She now ranks third in school history. UCI has produced the last three Big West women's discus champions. On Thursday, Villanueva took second in the hammer with a toss of 184-00.
Natalie Koppel, Richardson,
Mia Marquez and
Aryel Coats started Saturday's action with a first-place finish in the 4x100 relay. The quartet combined for a time of 46.57, beating out Cal State Fullerton by three-hundredths of a second to secure UC Irvine's third Big West title in the 4x100 (2016, 1992).
In the 400m hurdles,
Cecily Montanez made a late push, passing Cal State Fullerton's Madison Moku down the stretch for a podium finish. She notched a personal-best 62.08 to take third overall.
Amari Fraser placed just outside the top-three in the 100m hurdles as she came in fourth at 14.47, which was .04 seconds behind the third-place finisher. She also scored in the 400m (8th) and 400m hurdles (6th).
Marquez led the Anteaters in the 400m where she was fourth (57.01). Koppel also took fifth in the 200m (24.98), while Coats contributed seventh-place finishes in both the 100m (12.07) and 200m (25.52).
Hannah Chau, who won the 10K title on Thursday evening, scored in the 5000m with a sixth-place showing (16:57.05).
Kassidy Sani (153-00) and
Tayla Crenshaw (151-03) were also fourth and fifth in the discus, respectively. Sani's mark was a lifetime best.
Fraser, Marquez, Coats and Richardson closed out the championship meet in the 4x400 where they took home runner-up honors at 3:49.83.
The selections for the NCAA West Preliminary Round will be announced May 20 on NCAA.com. The region's top-48 declared student-athletes in each individual event, and the top-24 declared relay teams will be accepted into the meet at Texas A&M, May 26-29.
