May 15, 2004
IRVINE, Calif. - Gaucho junior Cosette Smith upset the defending Big West Champion, Letiwe Marakurwa of Idaho, to win the conference 10,000m title on Friday night at UC Irvine. The Gauchos rallied to fifth by the end of the third day of competition for the team title after a rough start on Friday.
The Gauchos are tied for fifth with Utah State at 29 points going into the final day of the Big West Championship. Idaho leads with 59, followed by Cal Poly in second at 48, Long Beach St. and CS Northridge are tied for third at 47, Riverside is in 7th with 11, UC Irvine is 8th at 3 points, and CS Fullerton has failed to score.
Smith's win along with three other Gauchos who secured scoring spots in the 10,000m, capped a nice finish for UCSB in the last event of the 3rd day. Cal Poly's Amber Simmons lead for most of the race, while Smith, making her debut in the 10,000m on the track, Marakurwa, and Utah State's Carol Cabinallias followed in the lead pack. Simmons began to drop the pace late in the race but was unable to shake Smith and Marakurwa, while Cabinallis began to fade. Marakurwa made the first move going into the final lap however Smith responded by unleashing a 73 last lap to win in 36:22.67, ahead of Marakurwa's 36:25.97. Simmons took third at 36:28.79.
Gaucho senior Desiree DeJesus came all the way up for 4th place in 37:17.67. Freshman Megan Lewis took 7th in 37:56.54 and sophomore Seanna Martin placed 8th in 38:07.99, adding a much needed 18 points to the team total.
The result was a bit of redemption for DeJesus, who crashed into a barrier in the steeplechase earlier in the day, while holding down 4th place with less than 2 laps remaining. DeJesus could only manage a 10th place finish after the fall.
Sophomore Amy Haapanen rallied to an All-Conference second place finish in the discus after a disappointing result in the hammer, the meet's first event of the day. Haapanen failed to make the nine woman final in the hammer, after two fouls and a 170' 6" third attempt left her 1' 4" short of ninth and advancing the final for three more attempts. Undeterred by the result Haapanen tossed the discus 167' 8" to finish second, in an event she was ranked 5th going into the competition, and picked up 8 big points for the Gauchos.
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UCSB added 3 points in the high jump, as freshmen Devon Tracy, and Heather Hernandez both cleared 5' 6" for 7th and 8th place respectively.
In the running event trials, three Gauchos advanced in the women's 1,500. Junior Desiree Leek took 3rd in the first heat in 4:34.20 and Roseann Peters was 4th getting the last automatic qualifying spot by just .01 with a time of 4:34.39. Sophomore Lauren Christman placed 4th in the second heat at 4:33.46 to advance.
Christman also made the finals of the 800m moving up from 6th to 2nd place in the final 100m with a time of 2:12.59. Twin sister Lindsay Christman, finished second in the third heat to advance with a 2:11.97.
Senior Jasmine Washington comfortably won her preliminary heat of the 400m in 54.69. Sophomore Kylie McCuen was advanced to Saturday's final by taking second in the second heat at 56.31.
Washington and McCuen also both advanced in the 200m, going 1-2 in the second heat with times of 24.47 and 24.89.
