Dre Johnson and Rasha Badrani led an assault on the school record book last weekend as the Cal State San Marcos men’s and women’s track teams posted top marks at two meets.
Badrani, a San Pasqual High School grad who last week was named the Division II West Regional Women’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, lowered her own school record in the 400 meters with a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 54.67 seconds. Then she reached the qualifying standard in the 400-meter hurdles (:59.97) during the Mangrum Invitational on the San Marcos campus.
Johnson, meanwhile, broke his own school record in the 100-meter dash at 10.58 seconds. Jason Wells, a La costa Canyon High School grad, posted the second-fastest 100 meters in school history at 10.61 seconds, while Troy Thompson Jr. posted the seventh-fastest 100 at 10.79 seconds.
Earlier, the quartet of Johnson, Zavier Hidalgo, Wells and Thompson knocked almost a half-second off the 15-year-old school record in the 400-meter relay in 41.20 seconds. San Marcos finished 1-2-3 in the 800 with Mateo Saldana (1:53.54), Braden Oberg (West Hills High, 1:53.41) and Renton McGregor (1:54.93).
Scripps Rancho High School graduate Nick Melanese won the 1,500 meters in the NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3:46.95. Sankalp Shastri also met the NCAA provisional standard while finishing second in 3:48.49 with the fifth-fastest time in Cougars history. On Saturday, Melanese topped 40 other runners to win the 800 meters at UC Irvine’s Vince O’Boyle Classic with a time of 1:53.14. McGregor (1:55.32) was third and Oberg (1:55.41) was fourth.
Kalathan Laiwa-McKay had the second-best discus throw in CSUM history and finished second in the shot put. Dorian Fillmore (Monte Vista High School) had the eighth-best triple jump in program history and finished second in the high jump. Laiwa-McKay finished third in the shot put.
Elsewhere:
• This hasn’t been the best of seasons for either the San Diego State (9-19) or University of San Diego (6-21) baseball programs, but both teams improved their conference records last weekend.
USD took two of three from Pepperdine at Fowler Park to improve to 3-3 in West Coast Conference play. CF Austin Smith (Granite Hills High School) has hit in 18 straight games for the Toreros. SDSU swept a three-game series from UNLV improve to 5-4 in Mountain West play.
• Jake Entrekin (Steele Canyon High School) hit two home runs to become Point Loma Nazarene’s all-time home run leader with 43, although the 22nd-ranked Sea Lions dropped two of three to Fresno Pacific to fall to 22-10 overall and 18-8 in PacWest Conference play.
• Eighth-ranked Palomar College (20-8, 11-2) won two of three games from Grossmont College to strengthen the Comets’ hold on the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference lead. Southwestern College (19-9, 10-3) moved into second while Grossmont (17-9, 8-5) slipped to third.
• Cal State San Marcos infielder Jillian Albayati (.421, four homers, 22 RBIs) and pitcher Jayline Sloss (10-4, 2.56 earned run average) made the watch lists for NCAA Division II Softball Player and Pitcher of the Year awards. The 15th-ranked Cougars (25-10, 11-9 California Collegiate Athletic Association) dropped three of four at Cal Poly Humboldt.
• San Diego State’s Cece Cellura was named Mountain West Co-Pitcher of the Week after allowing two hits with six strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings Saturday in the Aztecs’ (22-12, 6-3) 1-0 win at Nevada.
• Breanna Lutz (Ramona High School) is hitting .563 (40-for-71 with seven homers and 38) RBIs as second-ranked Palomar College (24-2) extended its PCAC winning streak to 30. Infielder Zoe Karam is hitting .462 with eight homers and 30 RBIs.
• San Diego City College’s men’s and women’s tennis teams have clinched their conference titles.
• San Diego State’s women’s tennis team improved to 11-6 overall and 4-1 in Mountain West action by defeating Colorado State and Wyoming on the road.
• San Diego State golfer Kylie Phi was named the Mountain West Freshman of the Week for the third time.
