Big West Track : UC Irvine Third After First Day

Beth McGrann and Pete Vicencio of UC Irvine won individual titles at the Big West Conference track and field championships Thursday night at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

The two seniors each scored 10 points to help Irvine’s men’s and women’s squads to third place in the first day of the two-day meet. The meet continues at 1 p.m. today with the decathlon and 110-meter high hurdles.

In the men’s portion of the meet, after six final events, six-time defending champion Fresno State leads with 74 points, followed by Utah State (38) and Irvine (36). In the women’s competition, after four finals, two-time defending champion Fresno State leads with 49 points, followed by UNLV (34) and Irvine (20).

McGrann had little trouble defending her conference title in the 10,000 meters. McGrann took the lead from the start and won in 35 minutes 51.7 seconds--a meet record, but far off her personal best of 33:07.

Vicencio had a much more challenging time in winning his first Big West title, the steeplechase.

Vicencio ran the first half of the 3,000-meter long race about 15 yards behind the leaders, Fresno State’s David Naranjo and Rod Heskett. Running comfortably, Vicencio gradually closed the gap, and with a lap to go, took the lead along with Brett Hill of Utah State.

With 300 meters to go, Hill and Vicencio started their kick, and hurdled the final water jump shoulder to shoulder. On the final stretch, Vicencio outkicked the field to win in 9:02.26. Hill, who smacked his trail leg against the final barrier, finished third (9:05:14), after Naranjo (9:04:05) passed him in the final 20 meters.

Meet Notes

Irvine thrower Mike Morales contributed 10 points to the men’s total with a third in the hammer throw final, and a fourth in the discus. The Anteater men suffered a significant loss when Will Stolpe, the conference leader at 200 meters, pulled a hamstring in the 100-meter heats. Stolpe is not expected to compete today. . . . Cal State Fullerton’s Lori Shaw ran the fastest time of the day (56.38) in the women’s 400 prelims.