May 30, 2004
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - Gaucho sophomore Tetlo Emmen won and junior Ben Armel finished second in the 800m final at the NCAA West Region Championship on Saturday at CS Northridge. Both earned a trip to Austin, Texas for the NCAA National Championship June 9th-12th. Ranked 6th entering the competition in the 800m Emmen was a surprise winner in a very physical final that saw a Stanford runner fall and Armel nearly go down with him as well.
Emmen and Armel each finished third in their qualifying heats on Friday, with Armel running a 1:49.61 in the second heat and Emmen recording a 1:50.30 in the first heat. In Saturday's final the early pace was slow as the tightly bunched pack passed through 400m in around 56 seconds. Todd Arnold of Washington burst from the pack going around the next turn and in a frenzy to cover the move Stanford's Joaquin Chapa went down right in front of Armel. After avoiding a disastrous fall Armel surged into second place and Emmen followed. Emmen over took Armel for second with 150m to go and passed Arnold for the lead going into the final straightaway. Meanwhile a fast closing chase pack caught Armel and he appeared to be boxed in with just 100m to go. At a about 60m to go a gap opened up just thin enough for Armel to slip through and into to second as Emmen held on for the win in 1:50.74. Armel ran 1:50.83 and UCLA's Nick Thornton was third in 1:50.96.
On Friday sophomore Eugene Bradley improved his personal best in the shot put by nearly one foot with a 55' 2" effort that was good for 15th place. Bradley was ranked last in the field of 24 entering the competition. The mark also moves Bradley to third on the all-time Gaucho list in the event. Junior Ryan Lockner finished 20th at 53' 11.25" just 4" shy of his personal best.
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A pair of seniors concluded their Gaucho careers at Northridge. On Friday Nohel Corral ran 47.31 in the preliminary heats of the 400m. While he failed to qualify for the final, Corral closed out a very successful final season at UCSB as the Big West Champion in the 400m, ranked #5 on the All-time Gaucho list at 47.16, and anchored the 4x400m relay to a 3:11.32, the fastest time at UCSB since 1987. Mark Martello failed to clear the opening height in the pole vault of 15' 11.25", but finished his Gaucho career as the third best vaulter in UCSB history with a lifetime best of 16' 5.5", just 1.5" shy of the school record. Martello was also a great all-around athlete who contributed in the high jump, long jump, triple jump and javelin throw in many multi-team scoring meets during his two years at UCSB after transferring from Saddleback JC.
Emmen and Armel combined to score 18 points for UCSB putting the Gauchos at 14th in the final team standings. UCLA won the team title with 141 points. UCSB finished just behind three Big West schools, CS Northridge was 11th with 22 points, Long Beach St. was 12th with 19, and Cal Poly was 13th with 18.5. Utah State and CS Fullerton tied for 19th with 6 points and Idaho finished 22nd with 2 points.
The first round of the 800m at the NCAA Championship will be held on Wednesday June 9th at 5:10pm CDT.
