SAN DIEGO – Dominican track and field saved its best for last as several participants set personal and program bests at the PacWest Track & Field Championships at the PLNU Track and Field.
 
"The PacWest is stacked with three top-10 nationally ranked teams," head coach Teressa DiPerna said. "For us this was a great opportunity to see what lies ahead for our program as well as to continue to lay the foundation for the future. Instead of being intimidated, we went all out and competed with several of our athletes setting personal records."
 
Women's recap
Caytlin Capulong continued her consistent improvement as she once again broke her own program record in the javelin as her third throw sailed 28.68 meters to land her in 10th place ahead of Bella Patterson from Point Loma Nazarene University. Emma Wuelfing also claimed a top-10 finish for the Penguins as she leapt 4.43 meters on her second attempt of the long jump to finish in 10th with teammate Michelle Chang right behind her with a jump of 4.40 meters. Autumn Jordan rounded out the field participants competing in the discus as she wasted no time with her first throw sailing 20.37 meters to finish 15th ahead of the Sea Lions' Bella Patterson by .3 meters.
 
Julianna Mendez fell just short of qualifying for the finals of the 800 meter as she placed 10th in the prelims with a time of 2:21.35 seconds to lead off the women's track portion of the event. Dominican's 4x100 relay team began the second day of competition for the Penguins as Morgan Semana, Claire Brown, Wuelfing and Kiana Pelton set a new program record of 50.97 seconds to take sixth in the field of seven. The finish gave Dominican its first team points of the championships with three. Dominican added to its team point total in the 4x400 relay to cap off the event as Brown, Pelton, Wuelfing and Mendez beat the previous Penguin record by 14 seconds with a time of 4:22.05 seconds. The finish pushed the Dominican team total to five points to finish seventh at the meet.
 
Men's recap
Isaiah Carter led off the men as he set a personal and program record in the discus as his first throw went 28.00 meters. The throw beat his previous program record by 1.36 meters. Wakilli Bennett then set a new program record in the 100 meter dash prelims as he finished with a time of 10.74 seconds to finish first in his heat and move on to the finals. He did not disappoint in the finals as he became the first Penguin with a podium finish as he finished third with a wind-assisted time of 10.61 seconds as Daquan Berry of Academy of Art was able to narrowly edge him at the finish line for second by .05 seconds.
 
While Bennett gave Dominican its most team points, Jacob Potere was the first Penguin to earn team points at the event as an individual in the 10k. Potere was yet another athlete that set a new program record as he finished with a time of 32:48.51 to break his previous record by more than three seconds. His time put him in eighth place overall to earn the final team point from the event and to top David Berardi of Concordia University Irvine by eight seconds. Xavier Mendoza finished 14th with a time of 33:49.69 as he outstretched Calvin Abbott of Fresno Pacific at the finish line by .01 seconds in a photo finish.
 
The Dominican men's 4x100 relay team of Alexandre Bernier, Louie Galdamez, Kieran Vrklan and Shawn Verdote added three more team points with a program-record time of 44.49, shaving .5 seconds off the previous best. Not to be outdone, Vrklan teamed with Esondre Christian, Jared Wright and Stefan Mueller in the 4x400 relay as the group topped the previous program record by 19 seconds finishing sixth with a time of 3:41.89 seconds. The finish gave Dominican 13 total team points as they finished sixth at the meet.