Track Competes at Bruin Invitational; Davis Continues to Shine
March 3, 2006

CSUSM's track team traveled to UCLA on Saturday to compete in the Bruin Invitational, and came away with four more qualifiers for Nationals. Cougar junior Ashleigh Davis turned in her second great performance in as many events this season, winning the 400-meter hurdles.

The win for Davis comes on the heels of a fourth-place finish at last week's Rossi Relays, where she also competed in the 100-meter relay. Davis has already qualified for Nationals in both events. She also runs on the 400-meter relay team, which too qualified last week. On Saturday, her 400-meter hurdle time of 1:04.61 was .02 seconds faster than last week's.

She will be joined at Nationals by Emily Jones, Taliah Chatterfield, Samantha Showns, and B.B. Shey, all of which posted qualifying marks in their events at the Bruin Invitational.

Jones finished fifth in the very competitive 3,000-meter steeplechase field (UCLA athletes took the top three spots), posting a time of 11:37.93 in the finals of the event.

Chatterfield qualified in the 100-meter hurdles, placing 5th. Her best time on the day was 15 seconds flat.

Samantha Showns had a terrific day, finishing behind only two UCLA runners to take 3rd out of the 21-person field in the 400-meter dash. She easily qualifies for Nationals with a time of 57.20.

Finally, senior runner Bonghabih Shey earned a bid to Nationals in the 800-meter, running 2:15 and finishing 6th. A star on the cross country team, Shey is expected to compete in multiple events for the Cougars at Nationals.

Other Cougars had good showings as well. Chase Thomas tied for 3rd in the men's high jump, Anthony Guadagnini finished third in the men's 1,500-meter run, Luci Lapp placed 5th in the women's javelin throw, Namadhjlah McIntosh took 4th in the women's 100-meter dash, Dominique Younger finished 3rd in the men's 400-meter hurdles, and Andrea Talhami placed fifth in the women's triple jump while Conrad Ottey took 2nd in the men's.

With the season just underway, many Cougar athletes are expected to qualify for Nationals in the upcoming events. It's already looking like a strong season for Coach Steve Scott's team, and they should easily surpass last year's number of athletes sent to Nationals. Next Saturday the squad will be competing at the UCSD City Invitational.