Cal State Fullerton's Giovanni Lanaro won the Big West Championship in
the pole vault for the second consecutive season and Joe Thomas finished
second in the men's triple jump to pace the Titans to an eighth-place
finish at the league championship meet last weekend at UC Irvine.
Fullerton finished with 28 points, ahead of UC Riverside, which finished
ninth with 12.5. Cal State Northridge won the league title with a team
total of 157.
Lanaro vaulted 5.40m (17'8.50") to win the title over Cal Poly's
Jon Takahashi (5.30m). Thomas leapt 15.25m (50' 1/2") to finish second
in the triple jump behind the Matadors' Jason Romero, who won the title
with a leap of 15.96m (52' 4 1/2").
Fullerton also got a top five finish from junior Aaron Williams in the
long jump, who finished fourth with a leap of 7.23m (23' 8.75").
Evan Geisert finished 13th in the men's steeplechase with a time of 9:40.37.
On the women's side, the Titans finished ninth with 16.5 points as all
were chasing Cal State Northridge, which claimed its second women's title
in three years with 165 points.
Junior Christine Ruby and junior Jennifer Clarke each posted top five
finishes to lead the Titans. Ruby finished fifth in the 800m with a time
of 2:14.02 and Clarke finished tied for fifth in the women's pole vault
with a height of 3.60m (11' 9.75").
Senior Danielle Hernandez finished just out of the scoring in the women's
3000m steeplechase, finishing ninth with a time of 11:23.56.
Cal State Fullerton next competes individually at the 2004 NCAA Regional
competition at Cal State Northridge on May 28-29 in a last-chance effort
to qualify for the NCAA Championships to be held in Austin, Tex., June
9-12.
