SACRAMENTO, Calif.---   The Cal Poly Humboldt Lumberjacks recorded fifteen personal best times or marks at the Sacramento State Invitational this afternoon in Sacramento. Leading the way were Emily Bath, Joy Hano and Aris Valerio.  Hano placed second in the 100 hurdles, fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 100.  Bath and Valerio finished in second in the women's 800 and men's 800.
 
Hano moved into fifth place on the Humboldt Top Ten list with her fifth-place time of 12.33 in the 100-meter dash. She also improved her time in the 100 hurdles with a second-place time of 14.50, which is third in school history.  Hano ran a time of 25.65, which places her fourth and moved her into tenth place in school history. 
 
Valerie Heywood also recorded personal best times in the 100 and 200 this afternoon.  She posted a sixth-place time of 26.70 in the 200 and a seventh-place time of 12.84 in the 100. 
 
Over in the 800-meter races, Emily Bath and Aris Valerio paced the Jacks. Bath finished in second-place in the women's race with a personal best time of 2:22.17.  Over in the men's 800, Valerio ran a 1:53.66 to finish in second place which is the fastest time in his career.  Also recording personal best times and finishing in the top eight were Julian Jensen (fifth, 1:56.11), Dominic Raffetto (seventh, 1:56.94) and Charles Becker-Ellison (eighth, 1:57.94).
 
Kegan Richards finished in sixth-place in the shot put with a personal best throw of 47-9.85 (14.57m). Finishing in third place was Jared Del Real with a throw of 48-2.50 (14.69m).  Improving his mark in the pole vault was Jonathan Sweeney with a third-place finish (14-01.25, 4.30m). Delaena Montes had a personal best throw of 40-10.25 (12.45m) in the shot put, which placed her third in the field this afternoon.
 
Other Jacks that finished in the top ten in their respective events this afternoon were:  Grant Van Emmerik (fourth, 400-meter, 49.49), Shane Oliver (fifth, 400-hurdles, 58.85), Valerie Heywood (sixth, 400-meter, 1:02.77), Serena Smith (seventh, 1500-meter, 5:22.73), Kaela Dennert-Frederick (ninth, high jump, 4-9.50, 1.46m), Jared Del Real (third, shot put, 139-01, 42.40m), Kegan Richards (sixth, shot put, 131-11, 40.72m, and Jason Trent (tenth, hammer, 129-00, 39.32m)

QUOTES FROM COACH INGRAM:  "We we're hoping for ideal weather conditions at this meet and we got crazy high winds, which translated into fast times in the short sprint and hurdle events with the wind at their backs, but proved difficult for races around the full oval (400m and up) where they had to fight through 3-7 meter per second headwinds in half of their races. I was especially impressed with our 800m runners, most of which ran lifetime bests or very close to them today despite the strong winds. These new marks put three Humboldt men into the top 10 in the CCAA for the 800m, with Aris Valerio, Julian Jensen, and Dominic Raffeto, with Charles Becker-Ellison closely behind. 

Today our short sprinters ran great times in the 100's, 200's, and 100m hurdles, and took advantage of the favorable winds, setting many new lifetime bests (Joy Hano, Valerie Heywood, Chris Roberds, Ryan Castro, Malachi Arthur). Hano earned her way into the program record books in a couple more events this weekend, running the 5th fastest and 10th fastest times in school history in the 100m and 200m respectively. 

I was also really proud of Jonathan Sweeney today, he has been improving steadily in pole vault but gusty switchy cross winds are horrible conditions for consistency on the runway which can create higher safety risks in this event and can really psyche out a jumper, but he kept his focus and composure and overcame to achieve a new season best jump and clearing his first 14 foot bar this season and taking 3rd place in that event. His new mark moves him up to tie for 7th place rank in the CCAA. 

It was another really big day for Delaena Montes and Kegan Richards in the throws. Delaena hit a 1 meter (3 foot) personal best today in the shot put, breaking the 40 foot barrier for her first time and taking 3rd place in a very competitive field. This new mark moved her to 4th place in the CCAA, up from a previous 11th place ranking. Kegan Richards also threw a lifetime best in the shot taking 5th in the competition, and moving up from 12th to 8th in the CCAA.

It's been another outstanding week for our program, and it's exciting to see all the hard work our athletes and coaches have been putting in really come to fruition. We're going to keep up our intensity and carry this momentum into the final weeks of competition. We will have full squads competing at these final few regular season competitions coming up in Ashland, Chico, and with CCAA's in San Francisco."
 
UP NEXT:  The Jacks will return to competition this Friday-Saturday, April 15-16 when Cal Poly Humboldt travels to Ashland, Oregon, to participate in the Raider Invitational.  This will be the Jacks' second to last meet prior to the 2022 CCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, May 5-7, at San Francisco State University in San Francisco, Calif.