BIG WEST TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS : UCI’s Farmer Can Rest Easily After Winning Decathlon

Friday night, UC Irvine sophomore Matt Farmer didn’t sleep like a man who had a 316-point lead after the first day of decathlon competition in the Big West Conference track and field championships.

“You have nightmares about losing when you have that big of a cushion,” Farmer said. “I didn’t get to sleep until 2:30 a.m. and woke up several times through the night. You start to wonder about things that could go wrong.”

Perhaps Farmer was too much of a weekend worrier. He did well enough in five events Saturday to win the decathlon with 7,322 points, one more than his previous high and 174 more than second-place finisher Shawn Wilbourn of Cal State Long Beach.

Farmer helped Irvine to a fourth-place finish in the men’s meet. Fresno State won its eighth consecutive conference championship with 202 points, followed by Long Beach (120), Utah State (116), Irvine (88), UC Santa Barbara (69), New Mexico State (35) and Cal State Fullerton (18).

Host Nevada Las Vegas won the women’s title with 146 points to edge Irvine (135) and San Diego State (132). Other finishers were Fresno State (104), Long Beach (59), Santa Barbara (10) and Fullerton (3).

The Anteater women’s team was paced by former Newport Harbor High School standout Buffy Rabbitt, who won the 1,500 meters in 4 minutes 26.5 seconds and the 3,000 in 10:02.40.

Considering Irvine did not have entries in the 100 hurdles, triple jump and high jump, the Anteaters did quite well.

“It’s incredible for us to do what we did without people in those events,” UCI Coach Vince O’Boyle said. “So I’m very happy. The girls did a super job.”

As usual, the Anteater women were strong in the distance events. Besides Rabbitt, Rayna Cervantes (second in the 1,500 and third in the 3,000) and Andrea Sansom (fourth in the 1,500 and third in the 800) each placed in two events.

But Irvine had an extra ingredient this season that it hasn’t had in in the past: sprinting prowess.

Freshmen Sjondrala Vaughn and Desiree Bracey finished second and third, respectively, in the 100 and third and fourth, respectively, in the 200. Shelly Tochluk finished third in the 400.

“We had to have ‘come-through’ performances from our sprinters,” O’Boyle said. “We knew we could dominate the distance events, but now we have Sjondrala and Desiree in the 100 and 200 and Shelly in the 400. It gives us solid depth in the program.”

Irvine also received a strong performance from senior Trindl Fearnley, an Edison High graduate who finished second to San Diego State’s Gaylen Ames in the heptathlon. Ames, an El Modena High graduate who also placed among the top six finishers in five other events, was named female athlete of the meet.

Long Beach’s Otis Dixon, who won the 400 and ran legs on the 49ers’ winning 400 and 1,600 relays, was named the meet’s outstanding male athlete.

The Irvine men’s team had two other individual winners Saturday, Mike Morales in the shotput and Aaron Mascorro in the 5,000.

After finishing second in the hammer throw and fourth in the discus--both events he expected to win--Morales, an NCAA qualifier in the hammer throw, won the shot with a toss of 55 feet 11 3/4 inches.

Mascorro, who won the 10,000 Friday, won the 5,000 in 16:22.24 Saturday.

Farmer is an NCAA provisional qualifier in the decathlon, meaning he has scored 7,250 points or better.

His top score going into the conference meet was the ninth-best in the country, so he must await the results of conference meets across the nation to see if he is one of 12 decathletes invited to the NCAA meet, May 30-June 2 at Durham, N.C.

“My father was a college track coach and, growing up, I always dreamed of winning a conference championship and going to the NCAA meet,” Farmer said. “It’s pretty overwhelming.”

Something to lose sleep over, no doubt.

Track Notes

UC Irvine’s Marc Kallick and Sonny Reynolds each placed in two events, Kallick finishing sixth in the decathlon and the 110 high hurdles and Reynolds finishing fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 100. . . . Fullerton’s Mark Hill, a receiver on the Titans’ football team, placed in two events, finishing fifth in the 400 and sixth in the 200. Fullerton’s Steve Frisone placed fifth in the 1,500, and Jesse Henderson finished fourth in the triple jump. . . . UCI’s Erik Petersen placed third in the high jump. . . . UCI’s Caroline Plier, who won the women’s 10,000 Friday, placed second in the 5,000 Saturday. Teammate Amy Dabul was fourth. . . . Long Beach’s Jennifer Bessel set a course record of 17:11.34 to win the women’s 5,000.