Courtesy of UCR Athletics
Courtesy of UCR Athletics

The Big West Track and Field Championships have been heating up over the past couple of weekends as the athletes of UCR’s track and field team competed at UC Davis over the weekends of May 9-10  and May 16-17.

The men’s team placed fifth while the women’s team finished the championship in seventh place overall. Long Beach State’s men’s club and UC Davis’ women’s team took home the Big West bragging rights.

Caleb Stuart took home two first-place trophies with a 58.67-foot shot put throw and a whopping 219.25 mark in the hammer. Stuart dominated the hammer event, out-throwing his nearest opponent by 25 feet. In the shot, he started with a 52.16-foot throw and after a foul, threw his winning mark.

Long jumper Ted Hooper was crowned Big West Champ for the third time in a row with a 24.58-foot mark. Hooper and five other jumpers started the long jump with fouled marks. His top jump came in the fifth round of jumps, erasing most of the doubt that he wouldn’t win.

Danielle Littleton won in both the long jump and 100-meter hurdles, as well as placing second in the heptathlon. Her standings don’t reflect the weight of her accomplishments, as she broke the school record for points as a heptathlete. Littleton started off strong by leading the group by 18 points after the first day of events. She placed first in the 100 hurdles, second in the high jump and the 200. She then surprised everyone with a career-best 5.42-foot mark in the high jump.

Michael Koger took home a second-place trophy in the men’s 400 with a 52.00 finish.

Chima Ikeme placed third in the discus, hitting a 167.67-foot mark. Stuart almost medaled in the disc as well with a fourth-place 163.92-foot mark.

Tiffini Stone came fourth in the women’s triple jump clearing 39.81-feet and Jacquelyn DuBois finished seventh with a top mark of 39.38-feet. Michael Harris and Darren Richardson Jr. came in fifth and eighth in the men’s triple jump with marks of 48.56-feet and 46.5-feet.

The men’s 4×100 relay team of Hooper, Michael Kojin, Justin Harris and Bryan Adams placed fifth with a 41.33 time. The men’s 4×400 relay team of Koger, Dylan Gates, Harris and Marcus Cummings mimicked the 4×100 team with a fifth-place 3:14.53 time.

The UC Riverside women’s 4×100 relay team of Phoenisha Schuhmeier, Noelle Abboud, Camille Deadwiler and Nechelle Reyes came in sixth with a time of 47.56. The women’s 4×400 relay team of Abboud, Littleton, Tayler Fleming and Keisha May recorded a 3:51.60 time, putting them in eighth place.

The individual winners of the UCR track and field team will advance to the NCAA West Region Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., beginning on May 29.