March 31, 2013

RESULTS: Stanford Results | SFSU Results | Cal-Nevada Results
VIDEO: Strum at Stanford | Shea at Stanford | Draper at Stanford | Vitug at Cal-Nevada

LOS ANGELES - It was a big holiday weekend for LMU track as the squad participated in three different meets over the weekend. The result was a pair of school records, two marks that rank in the NCAA's top-25, three that are in the top-25 in the West Region and six marks that currently rank in the top-48 in the West Region.

The team participated in the Stanford Invitational, the San Francisco State Distance Carnival and the Cal-Nevada Championships. Here are the highlights from the weekend:

Weston Strum ran 13:57.42 for 5000-meter at the Stanford Invitational, setting a career-best and school record while also ranking 14th best in the NCAA and sixth in the West Region (www.tfrrs.org).

Strum is the first male in LMU history to run sub-14 for the 5000m event and is on pace to become the first male in LMU history to qualify for the NCAA West Region meet in May. The last mark that made Regionals last year was 14:11. Since LMU added track in 2006, the Lions have had a number of female qualifers (Laura Mickelson, Sara Mickelson, Tara Erdmann, Cassandra Salazar, Sheree Shea) but never a male.

Also at Stanford, Sheree Shea ran 16:13.27 for 5000m. It was another big career best that is currently No. 22 in the NCAA (www.tfrrs.org) and No. 10 in the West Region. It is another time that could qualify her for Regionals as the last mark in last year was 16:45.

Caroline Draper ran the 10,000-meter at Stanford in 35:18.87. As the case with the previous two, it was another career best by over a minute, ranking her No. 23 in the West Region.

"The times that Caroline, Sheree and Weston all ran at Stanford produced two of the top-25 times in the nation and three of the top-25 in the West," said Head Coach Scott Guerrero. "This was another big day for our program and I am proud or their performances."

Over at SFSU, Kevin Joerger won Section 2 of the Men's 5000m in a career best 14:25.60. Drew Dalton finished 5th in the same race in a season best 14:36.63

Finally, down in San Diego at Cal-Nevada, Sarah Vitug set a new school record in the 800-meter (2:11.68). That mark was a career best and earned her a third place medal and a podium spot. She took down the old record (held by Melani Hom) which was set way back in 2007.

Callie Mulgannon finished fourth (and just off the podium) in the 1500m in a career best 4:29.21. That mark represents her first time sub-4:30 and moves her into the #2 spot behind Tara Erdmann on the all-time LMU list.

In the Friday night Distance Carnival portion of the San Diego meet, multiple career bests were set in the 5k/10k races, but Douglas Petree (14:51.15) and Michael Duncan (14:58.36) ran career bests and became only the 10th and 11th members of the LMU "sub-15 club".