ARCATA, Calif. -- Cal Poly Humboldt's track and field team opened up their outdoor season this rainy weekend with their annual Green and Gold Open in the Redwood Bowl. The meet split the team into Green and Gold squads while also inviting neighboring team, College of the Redwoods. The meet also hosted over 25 alumni, and had many more participate in the weekend's alumni events, including the honorary of alumni, Kate Eilers, for being inducted into the Humboldt Athletics Hall of Fame.
The day was full of friendly competition, having the team pitted against each other to see who will get bragging rights for the season. With the combined scores, the Gold squad won by a singular point, beating the Green squad 89-88. Head Coach Sarah Ingram praises the group for their competitive nature stating, "This team has a competitive edge that will be instrumental in moving our program forward. Both the individual talent and depth in our sprint and middle distance groups is exciting, and we expect to be very competitive there this year."
On the women's side, Gillian Davis and Samantha Smith went 1 and 2 for discus, earning points for the Gold team. Davis then followed up with a 2nd place finish in the hammer throw, placing behind Marielle Winuk who took 1st with a personal record of 135 '0ft earning points for the Green team.
Joy Hano finished 1st in hurdles and 2nd in long jump, following her Gold teammate Ginny Brooks who earned herself a 1st place finish in long jump, and a new lifetime best of 17 '5.5ft. Mia Roberts ran an impressive time of 8.02 in the 60m dash, leading the Gold team and making a large improvement on her personal record. Chris Roberds also showed improvement in her 60m and 200m races on Saturday.
The women's 4x100m team opened their season with an impressive time of 48.34, which ranks 5th all-time in Humboldt history.
On the men's side, Joseph Gonzalez took 1st place in both shot put and discus, throwing marks of 47' 3.75ft and 132' 1ft. Jason Trent also opened up his outdoor season with a winning performance in the hammer throw with a mark of 146' 3ft.
Ryan Castro and Cristian Megas, contributed to the Green team by leading the sprints. Castro took 1st place in the 60m dash, and Megas followed with his 1st place performance in the 200m. Grant VanEmmerik and Joey Bowser went 1 and 2 in the 400m showing up for the Gold squad. VanEmmerik opened his season with an impressive time of 48.60.
The distance men showed up for the 600m race, with four men running sub 1:23. Dominic Raffetto and Julian Jensen came in the top 2 with blistering times of 1:21.73 and 1:22.38
The men's 4x100m team ran an incredible opening time of 42.87, proving that the men's team has grown and will continue to grow.
The meet ended with the traditional 4x400 redwood log relay, with athletes and alumni initiating the outdoor season together while keeping high spirits and excitement through the rain making the day an even more special event.
Coach Sarah Ingram believes the day was very successful, sharing "We also saw quite a few lifetime personal records set, which is unexpected on a day like Saturday. I think we also set a new team PR for the number of tents we set up to keep everybody protected from the elements. It's always a joy reconnecting with our alumni this weekend, and we're so grateful for their continued support of our program!"
The Lumberjacks will continue their outdoor campaign in Turlock at Stanislaus State where they will compete in the Kim Duyst Invitational March 1st and 2nd.
