Dec. 11, 2010

Final All-Comers Results

TUCSON - The University of Arizona track and field program kicked off its season Saturday at Roy P. Drachman Stadium, and if the reaction from the coaches was anything to gauge the upcoming season by then the 2011 season could be pretty exciting.

"All I can say is: we're good,” head coach Fred Harvey said with a slight grin after the annual Winter All-Comers meet hosted by the University of Arizona.

The meet serves as a “Red-Blue” scrimmage of sorts for the track and field team, with an added white team in the mix. Team captains then draft the players off the roster to try to form the most complete team and take home the bragging rights and a nice little trophy into the next season.

At the end of the day, it was the Arizona 'Blue' squadron that tallied the most points – and by a pretty hefty amount – to take home the team title, but it was the performance of individuals across the board that had the coaches all smiles afterward.

On the women's side, the Arizona squad lost only one critical piece of a 2010 team that saw the Wildcats finish as the runners-up at the Pac-10 Championships and 13^th place finishers at the NCAA Championships – two-time national champion high jumper Liz Patterson.

LaTisha Holden showed why she is one of the squads senior leaders Saturday, sweeping the 60-meter dash (7.71) and 60-meter hurdles (8.15) and adding a third place finish in the 150-meter dash in 18.71. Holden was the Mount Pacific Sports Federation champion in the 60-meter hurdles indoors last season and an NCAA qualifier in the 100-meter hurdles and 100-meter dash outdoors.

Tucsonan Tamara Pridgett made her debut on the track at Drachman Stadium for the first time as a Wildcat after several years of dominating the local ranks in the sprints and long jump. Pridgett won the long jump event, took third in the 60-meter dash and ran an impressive leg on the 4x300-meter medley with a 39.63 split.

Several other freshmen in the sprints also showed off the depth of the women's squad including Shapri Romero, who finished fourth in the 150-meters in 18.83 and second in the 300-meter with a time of 39.90, and Germe Poston, who finished as the runner up in both the 60- and 150- meter dashes in 7.75 and 18.59, respectively.

Christina Rodgers, fresh off her All-American finish in the 800-meters swept the 600- and 1000- meter races on Saturday and looked in prime form to have another impressive year. Fellow All-American Julie Labonte dominated the shot put as well with a best mark of 16.20m (53-1 ¾).

On the men's side, “night and day” was the term heard most frequently around the track when looking at the performance of the team.

The UA team welcomed Stephen Sambu to the track for the first time after his runner-up finish at the NCAA National Cross Country Championships just a couple weeks ago. Sambu cruised the entire race to a dominating win in the 3000-meters in 9:03.21.

Sophomores Nick Ross and Edgar Rivera-Morales returned to form in the high jump, both clearing 2.18m (7-1 ¾) with Rivera-Morales taking the win on misses though Ross nearly cleared 2.24m (7-4 ¼) on his final attempt. \

Sophomore James Eichberger returned from his redshirt season to the tune of a sweep in the 600- and 1000-meters. During the summer Eichberger saw immense improvements in the 800-meters while competing for Mexico at several international events and could return as a very important piece of the men's season.

Christopher McSwain also returned from his redshirt season last year, getting edged to former UA track star Akin Akinremi by just a hundredth of a second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.89 and following that up with a solid victory at 150-meters in 16.01.

The Blue team finished with 253 points, easily taking care of the Red team (193) and White (180) challengers.

The Wildcats officially open the season Jan. 15, at the Bronco Invitational in Boise, Idaho, as they kick off the 2011 indoor schedule.