The University of Redlands track & field teams partook in a busy week of action, with three members gaining experience in the Jim Click Shoot-out Multi Meet, and various others competing in the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational.
Junior Alison Smith (McKinleyville, CA) and freshman Kara Romani (Sacramento, CA) represented the Bulldog women in the Heptathlon at the Jim Click competition at the University of Arizona on Thursday and Friday. Smith earned 4386 points, while Romani amassed 3954 points in her debut.
Among the highlights, Smith uncorked a season-best time of 26.06 in the 200 Meters and a solid mark of 14.69 in the 100 Hurdles. In addition, she fired off a career-best effort in the Shot Put by reaching a distance of 35' 11 ¼", to go along with the biggest leap of her tenure in the Long Jump at 16' 2 ¼".
Romani gained excellent experience by making her young debut in the Javelin (62' 4"), Shot Put (27' 10"), and 800 Meters (2:32.49). Her times in the 200 Meters (26.35) and 100 Hurdles (16.70), and her mark in the High Jump (4' 9 ½") showed improvements from earlier this season.
On Saturday, Redlands put together a solid outing at the Pomona-Pitzer Invite, with sophomore Kaylee Jorgensen (Claremont, CA) headlining the day with her career-best time of 2:16.05 in the 800, which secures her spot among the Bulldogs' all-time, top-10 list.
Sophomore Emily Guthormsen (Half Moon Bay, CA) also ran a blistering time of 4:52.61 for a career-best showing in the 1500 Meters.
Furthermore, the Bulldogs earned a trio of top-six finishers, with sophomore Vanesa Blanchard (Palmdale, CA) leading the charge with her third-place performance in the High Jump. She recorded her best mark of the season at 5'5". Sophomore Mandy Widen (Vail, AZ) cleared a height of 11' 1 ¾" in the Pole Vault to take fourth, while senior Lauren Roberts (Portland, OR) completed the 5K in 18:18.35 for sixth place.
For the men, sophomore Afari La-Anyane (Morgan Hill, CA) competed in the first day of the Decathlon at the Jim Click Shootout, beginning with a career-best time of 11.32 in the 100 Meters. He also leaped to a season-best mark of 19' 7½" in the Long Jump and cleared a height of 5' 8¾" in the High Jump.
During the Pomona-Pitzer Invite, freshman Nick Burchett (Gold River, CA) ran the best time of his young career in the 400 Hurdles by completing the race in 56.86. Freshman Benjamin Casey (Highland Park, IL) produced a career-best time of 2:00.29 in the 800 Meters, while freshman Michael Sahagun (Rosemead, CA) blasted off a distance of 137' 1" in the Discus for the best of the season for the Bulldogs.
Redlands looks forward to hosting the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Multi-Dual No. 3 on Saturday, April 16, on Ashel Cunningham Track inside of Ted Runner Stadium, beginning at 11 a.m.