SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Men's and Women's Track and Field teams kicked off the 2016 Indoor season at Westmont College over the weekend. One member of the squad qualified for NAIA Indoor Nationals while two runners qualified at events outside the On Your Mark Meet.
Transfer Winston Lawson placed first in the men's high jump with a leap of 6'7" (earning a B standard qualifying mark for NAIA Indoor Nationals) and followed that up with a first place finish in the 110m High Hurdles with a time of 15.57 (VU 3rd all-time). Lawson also competed on Vanguard's first place 4x100m relay team, which ran 43.52 (fourth fastest Vanguard 4x100m team in school history). Also competing on the relay were Alec Duran, Quinton Alexander and Daniel Alade.
Alexander recorded a personal best in the discus (118 feet 3.5 inches) and also had stellar performances in the 110m hurdles 15.92 (2nd overall) and high jump 6'0" (3rd overall).
Duran raced to first place finish in the 200m (22.85) and second place finish in the 100m (11.16). Duran's 100m time ranks VU #5 all-time. Alade finished close behind Duran in the 100m with a third place time of 11.31 (VU #10 all-time).
Lydia Perrigo (FR/Hartsburg, MO) finished second overall in the women's shot put with a mark of 37 feet 7.5 inches which ranks #2 all-time among VU women.
Freshman transfer Kaylee Minnick (JR/Victorville, CA) threw the discus 104'4.75 to finish third overall. Minnick's mark ranks #7 all-time for VU women.
Keili Dorn (FR/Kailua-Kona, HI) finished third overall in the women's 800m with a time of 2:29.70 and also recorded a third place finish in the Mile (5:33.22) which ranks VU #8 all-time. Following closely behind Dorn in the 800m was Bayleigh Porter (JR/Riverside, CA) in a solid season debut of 2:30.65. Dorn and Porter combined with Ashley Ramey (SR/Huntington Beach, CA) and Lauren Soholt (SO/Riverside, CA) on the women's 4x400m relay team to finish 5th overall in 4:32.18.
Two members of the team ran in separate meets which featured their event. Josh Espinoza ran 4:18.63 in the Mile at the University of Washington Saturday afternoon, which was a solid debut considering he had recently taken four weeks off to recover from a plantar fasciitis injury in his foot. Espinoza's time was just .33 of a second off the A qualifying standard for NAIA Indoor Nationals. Zach Hunt ran 1:12:10 in the half marathon in Santa Clarita, which qualifies him for outdoor nationals in the marathon. Hunt was 40 seconds under the NAIA qualifying standard.
-GOLD PRIDE-
