The Cal Poly Women’s Track and Field team took first place while the Men’s team took second place at the Big West Multi-Event Championships from Friday, May 7 to Saturday, May 8 at Anteater Stadium in Irvine.
Cal Poly senior Julianna Ruotolo won the Big West championship for the heptathlon, helping the Mustangs earn 14 points and narrowly beating out UC Santa Barbara by one team point.
Ruotolo became the fifth Mustang in program history to win the heptathlon at the Big West Championships.
Heading into the final event of the meet on Saturday, Ruotolo trailed UC Davis’ Sydney Holmes by 53 points. Ruotolo clinched the championship by running a personal best 2:20.75 in the 800-meter finale.
In addition to her victory in the 800-meter race, Routolo came in first place in both the high jump with a jump of 1.7 meters (5′ 7″) and 200-meter race with a time of 25.77 seconds.
Ruotolo also recorded career-bests in both the long jump (18 feet and an inch) and the javelin throw (91′ 7″).
Cal Poly junior Adelae Fredeen came in fifth place which earned the Mustangs four team points in addition to Ruotolo’s ten points.
Fredeen won the shot put with a 12.13 meter throw and showed consistency throughout the two-day meet as she got fourth place or better in five out of the seven events.
Fredeen’s Saturday was highlighted by a career-best javelin throw of 108′ 2″ and a season-best 800-meter time of 2:30.88.
In the men’s decathalon, two Mustangs earned points for Cal Poly.
Cal Poly junior Dylan Bouzigues took home second place and earned the Mustangs eight points.
Bouzigues’ meet was highlighted by winning the discus throw, throwing for a mark of 133 feet and 11 inches. He then ended the event recording consecutive personal records in the javelin throw (182′ 5″) and then running 4:48.13 in the 1500-meter race.
Bouzigues’ tally of 6,973 points moves to No. 9 in school history.
Cal Poly graduate student Adam Gockel contributed three points to give the Men’s team 11 total points after finishing sixth in the decathlon with 5,919 points. In addition to throwing a career-best 115′ 9″ in the discus throw, Gockel won the pole vault event with a clearance of 14′ 9.5″ and finished third in the javelin throw with a mark of 172′ 1″.
Currently, Cal Poly sits in first place in the women’s standings with 14 points, leading UCSB by one point, while the men’s team is in second place with 11 points, six shy of the Gaucho lead.
The full stage of the Big West Championships will return to Irvine from May 13-15.