Danielle Ayers-Stamper led the Mustangs at the Washington Invitational Saturday, winning the women’s Pentathlon with a final score of 3956. The win qualifies Ayer-Stamper for the NCAA Indoor Championships, March 10-11 in Fayetteville, Ark.
Ayers-Stamper, fresh off winning the 55-meter hurdle event at the “Run for the Dream” meet in Fresno, topped that performance by topping a field of some of the best athletes in the West Coast in the women’s pentathlon.
Ayers-Stamper won the 60 meter hurdle event with a time of 8.86 as well as finishing near the top in the high jump (1.67 m), shot put (11.89m), long jump (5.75m), and the 800m (2:23.96).
With Ayers-Stamper’s score of 3956, she easily qualified for the NCAA Championships, surpassing the required score of 3700 by 256 points and just missing the automatic qualifying score of 4050 by 96 points.
Ayers-Stampers closest competition was Kalindra McFadden of Oregon who finished over 100 points behind Ayers-Stamper, but got a score strong enough to qualify for the NCAA Championships as well.
Other Mustangs with strong performances included Deidre Byrne, who ran a NCAA Championship qualifying time of 4:45.28 in the one-mile run. Byrne’s time was good for fifth place in the meet. Lauren Mulkey ran well in the one-mile as well, running a personal-best indoor time of 4:53.16.
Markita Berry finished in fifth in the long jump, with her best mark at 5.62m.
Sunday’s results
The Mustangs competed in the University of Washington Open on Sunday and came away with a number of strong showings, led by the one, two, three finish in the 800 meter run as Deirdre Byrne, Bridgette Sexton and Lauren Mulkey finished in first, second and third to lead the Mustangs in an impressive day in Seattle.
Cassie Atkinson won the one-mile event with a time of 5:13.48, narrowly edging out Hawaii’s Chantelle Laan who finished with a time of 5:13:96. Atkinson won the event the day after finishing 20th in the Washington invite on Saturday in the 800m where she ran a time of 2:16:46.
Danielle Ayers-Stamper continued her great start to the 2006 season by winning the 60m hurdles event with a time of 9.07. Ayers-Stamper also had a strong showing in the high jump event, finishing fourth with her best jump being marked at 1.60 meters.
Sexton also competed in the 60m hurdles and performed well, finishing sixth, with a time of 9.56. Sexton competed in the high jump as well, finishing with height of 7.48 meters.
Markita Berry excelled in the triple jump for the Mustangs, finishing second with a mark of 11.01 meters. Brittney Smith, who was unattached, won the event with a jump of 11.12. Berry performed well in the 60 meter dash as well, finishing in sixth with a time of 8.14.
Nikki Chase took third in the 400m, finishing with a time of 58.93, just missing Shannon Williams of S.E.T.A. who finished with a time of 58.89. Also competing in the 400m for the Mustangs was Lindsey McManus who finished with a time of 1:02.3.
Cal Poly will return to track Feb. 3, visiting New York to compete in the Millrose Games.