April 4, 2012

Complete Release

THIS WEEK IN CAL TRACK & FIELD: California will spend the month of April competing exclusively in the Bay Area, and action gets underway this weekend with the 38th Stanford Invitational Friday and Saturday, as well as the San Francisco State Distance Carnival on Friday.

The majority of the Golden Bears will travel to the Farm for the Stanford meet, where a deep and talented pool of athletes is expected. The event will feature the spring outdoor debuts for several Cal runners, including Deborah Maier, Chelsea Reilly and Sofia Oberg who all earned All-American honors during the indoor season.

During last year's Stanford Invite, Cal captured four events, including junior Angelica Weaver's victory in the 400-meter hurdles. Other winners were the since-graduated Tracey Stewart (triple jump) and Kristen Meister (high jump), as well as Ray Stewart in the 100-meter hurdles (2012 redshirt).

On Friday, the schedule begins 9 a.m. and runs past 11 p.m. with the 10,000 meters, while Saturday's action will wrap up by 5 p.m. The meet will feature live video coverage from Flotrack.org.

In addition to the Stanford Invitational, a handful of Bears will be on the track at San Francisco State Friday. Athletes from more than 50 universities will be competing during the day, starting at 8 a.m. at Cox Stadium.

JIM CLICK SHOOTOUT RECAP: Golden Bears captured six events, including long jump and triple jump victories by Hammed Suleman, while teaming with Arizona to win the Jim Click Shootout last Saturday in Tucson. The meet featured two schools each from the Pac-12, Big Ten (Ohio State, Penn State) and ACC (Clemson, Miami) and pitted the conferences against each other.

Suleman won the long jump with a PR 25-5.25, which ranks seventh on Cal's all-time performer list and was the best for a Golden Bear since Chris Ferreira went 25-6.25 in 1996. In the triple jump, Suleman set an outdoor PR with a distance of 52-1.25.

Other winners on the day included Derek White in the men's discus (176-3); Collin Jarvis in the men's 3000 meters (8:25.58) to lead a 1-2-3-4 Cal finish; Sydney Gray in the women's 800 meters (2:12.06); and Malaina Payton in the women's long jump (19-11.00).

Among the PRs set were a time of 59.13 by Angelica Weaver in the women's 400-meter hurdles and White with a mark of 190-9 in the hammer, a nearly 15-foot improvement.

SULEMAN IN TOP 5 NATIONALLY: With his marks posted last week, Hammed Suleman ranks among the top five nationally in both the long jump (4th) and triple jump (5th) for the 2012 season.

ALL-AMERICAN BEARS: Six Golden Bears earned a total of nine All-America certificates for their performances at the NCAA Indoor Championships March 9-10 - the most ever for the school at the national indoor meet. Junior Deborah Maier, who posted runner-up finishes in both the 3000m and 5000m, received two first-team honors, while the other Cal competitors earned second-team status - Chelsea Reilly (3000m, distance medley relay), Sofia Oberg (800m, DMR), Angelica Weaver (DMR), Taylor Bryson (DMR) and Malaina Payton (long jump).

GOLDEN BEAR NOTES: The Cal women are ranked 10th in the USTFCCCA Program of the Year rankings after taking 18th at the NCAA cross country meet and 15th at the NCAA indoor meet ... both the men's and women's cross country teams earned All-Academic recognition for having GPAs above 3.0 in the fall; in addition, Deborah Maier and Chelsea Reilly received individual academic honors.