April 18, 2004
WALNUT, Calif. - Sophomore Amy Haapanen smashed her school record in the shot put on Sunday, to finish 8th in the national class invitational section of the event at the Mt. SAC Relays. Late Friday night, juniors Cosette Smith and Desiree Leek qualified for the NCAA Regional Meet and became the 2nd and 3rd fastest 5k runners in UCSB history.
Haapanen heaved the shot 52' 0" on her third attempt Sunday to qualify for the finals of the prestigious invitational event. While the sophomore from Manteca failed to improve her distance in the finals, the mark was ultimately good enough for 8th in the competition and well past her previous lifetime best of 51' 1.25". Her effort is not only the number one mark in the Big West, but also puts her at #4 in the West Region and #16 on the NCAA list.
On Friday night Smith and Leek took advantage of the ideal distance running conditions and a quality field to post NCAA Regional qualifying marks in the 5,000m. Smith used precise pacing to methodically move up through the large field of 50 runners, with Leek following close behind. After passing through splits at 1600m of 5:18 and 3200 at 10:36, Smith courageously closed a gap of about 10 meters to the next group of 5 runners on the ninth lap. Smith charged on to finish 16th in 16:33.13, knocking 11 seconds off her lifetime best, and well under the regional mark of 16:56.43. Leek fell behind Smith a bit on the 11th lap but rallied over the final 600m to finish 18th in 16:35.22, over a full minute under her previous best at 5k. Only Katie Appenrodt, an All-American in the event in 2003 with a school record 16:22.17, has run faster at UCSB than Smith and Leek. The pair of juniors now rank 9th and 10th in the West Region and 29th and 31st in the NCAA for 2004.
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Sophomore Roseann Peters ran a lifetime best 4:33.10 in the 1,500m on Saturday night, finishing 11th in her heat. Lauren Christman, a sophomore form Santa Cruz, placed 4th in her heat of the 800m, running 2:11.92, just .31 off her personal best for the two lapper.
On Friday at the Pomona Invitational, sophomore Lindsay Christman won her heat of the 800m in 2:12.49. Personal bests were recorded by senior Desiree DeJesus (4:37.89) and freshman Ashlee Drady (4:46.00) in the 1,500m. Freshman Heather Hernandez finished 4th in the high jump, equaling her best ever leap of 5' 7". Sophomore Misty Brewster met the Big West standard in the event with a season best 5' 3", becoming the fifth Gaucho high jumper to qualify for conference in the event. Haapanen finished 10th in the hammer at Pomona with a best of 185' 2", just 5 inches off her school record in the event.
