FULLERTON, Calif. -- Utah State's women won the Big West Track Championship for the seventh consecutive year, while the Aggie men claimed the title for the fifth time in the past six years late Saturday night.
USU head coach Greg Gensel was named the men's coach of the year for the fifth time and earned the women's coach-of-the-year honor for the fourth time.The Aggies had five individual men's champions and five individual women's champions. USU's multiple winners included Corey Murdock, who claimed the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles, and James Parker, who won both the hammer throw and discus. Bill Graves won the javelin.
The USU women battled back from a fifth-place standing after the first full day of events to win the meet with a strong showing on the final day. Jane Durfey captured both the 100 and 400-meter hurdles, while Shelley Grupe won the 400 and Charlotte Wahlin was tops in the hammer throw.
The Aggie women also claimed the 4x400-meter relay and had seven individual runner-up finishes. The USU men added three other runner-up placings in the league meet.
"The women's meet was a hard fought battle," Gensel said. "We were way behind after the first day and then we fought back inch by inch.
"It was a heck of a day for everybody," he added about both the men and women. "Everybody contributed."
Other USU highlights included Shae Jones-Bair establishing a school record in the pole vault at 13 feet, 3 inches. That mark was good enough for second place and was an NCAA automatic qualifying mark as well. Parker's discus toss of 191-04 was another USU record as well.
USU's titles were its second and third Big West Championships of the year, as the women's cross country team claimed a league title in the fall.
BIG SKY: The Weber State men's outdoor track and field team successfully defended its title, rolling up 152 points to win the championship Saturday at Cal State Northridge. CSN was second with 132 points, followed by Northern Arizona with 113.
The Wildcats were led by sophomore Charles Clinger, who was named the meet's outstanding athlete and won the high jump with a leap of 7-0 1/2. He finished second in the long jump at 24-3 1/2 and third in the triple jump.
Weber State's David Blair won the hammer throw with a school-record toss of 200-8. Joel Atwater won the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:50.28.
On the women's side, Brandi Prieto won her sixth straight triple jump title to lead Northridge to the title with 165 points. Northern Arizona was second with 135, while Weber State finished third at 111.