Four wins, multiple school record highlight Sunshine Open

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Chapman University track & field teams continued a strong start to the season at the Westmont Sunshine Open on Saturday. The men's 4x400m relay highlighted four event wins and several broken records for the Panthers.

The men's 4x400m relay team beat out 13 teams with a time of 3:24.23 to win the event. Junior Donovan Wilson led off the relay followed by senior Cody Epstein, freshman Ben Janda and junior Aki Shigeyama. Chapman was the only team to compete in the men's 4x800m relay, putting in two squads, and the "A" ran to the Chapman record for the Division III era with an 8:34.81.

The women's 4x800m relay team shattered the school record by 11 seconds. Gabby Lee, Jordan Diaz, Megan Campbell and Maddie Mirro ran a 10:05.07 in the event to pass last year's team in the record book.

"The last two weeks have been exciting. I'm proud of this team and how we've performed," commented head coach DeAndra'e Woods. "I really like this group of student-athletes and I truly believe they enjoy being on this team. With the new additions to the coaching staff we've already seen improvement in our different event groups. Our culture is brewing Brick By Brick and we will continue to build this program."

The two other event wins came in the individual events. Junior Armond Gray won the triple jump with a mar of 11.94 meters on his second attempt and took second in the long jump when he leapt 5.99 meters on his first attempt. Wilson sprinted to a win in the 600 meter run with a personal-best time of 1:22.03. It was also the fastest time in school history for the event usually run indoors.

All-time records went down in both Distance Medley Relays. The women's team of Katie Hansen, Carly Trent, Jordan Diaz and Mirro combined for a 12:50.80 to beat the record set a year ago by eight seconds. Jose Guerrero, Epstein, Chase Shanafelt and Drake Butler set the men's record from 1985 by eight seconds as well with a 10:47.62

Derek Ohara broke Chapman's 60m dash record with a 7.08 in finals to take fourth overall. Anthony Hart ran Chapman's fastest Division III time in the mile with a 4:36.27.

The Panthers are off for two weeks before heading to their first SCIAC Multi-Dual on Mar. 7 at Whittier College.

By Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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