BERKELEY, Calif. – Dominican track and field had another outstanding meet at the Brutus Hamilton Invitational as several Penguins set personal records and moved up the national rankings at Edwards Stadium.
Wakilli Bennett led the way once again for the men's side as he blew away the field in the 100m dash as he set a new personal best crossing the line in 10.25 seconds, topping runners from Oregon Cal and San Jose State. His time is now the seventh best in the NCAA Division II in the event and the top mark in the PacWest. In his second event of the day, Bennett once again topped the pack as he finished with a wind-assisted 20.90 in the 200m beating out runners from Oregon, Fresno Pacific and Cal.
Connor Chan set a personal best in the 200m with a time of 23.94, taking off a whole second from his previous best.
Adrian Aguirre added one more first place finish for Dominican on the men's side as he too blew past the field finishing the 110m hurdles in 14.09, 0.36 seconds faster than Kalobe Jimenez of Fresno Pacific who finished second. Aguirre's time also moved him up the national rankings into a tie for 15th and the top mark among all PacWest athletes.
Jaylen Allen highlighted the field events for the men as he made the finals in the triple jump and finished ninth overall with a mark of 12.31m to top Alex Valcarenghi of Chico State by a quarter of a meter.
On the women's side,
LaNicia Ellis continued to see improvement as she knocked off nearly a third of a second from her time in the 200m dash crossing the line in 25.97 seconds, a new program record. Ellis also inched closer to the Dominican record in the 400m as she crossed the finish line in 1:00.71, half a second from
Sarah Chavez's mark of 1:00.21 set last season.
Eryn Tufts and
Courtney Santos took the track in the 1500m and both finished inside the top-25. Santos set a personal best of 5:04.93 to place 22nd and Tufts improved by nearly three seconds in the event crossing in 5:06.47 to take 25th.
Caytlin Capulong set a new personal record in the 100m dash as she finished with a time of 13.09 to top runners from Cal State LA and Saint Mary's. Capulong also let her mark on the field events as she made the finals in javelin and finished ninth overall with a throw of 30.87m, besting athletes from UC Davis and Cal.
Dominican will compete next in the Bryan Clay and Chuck Buettner Twilight events next week. The Bryan Clay is a three-day event beginning Thursday at Cougar Athletic Stadium in Azusa, while the Chuck Buettner will take place Saturday at Chabot College Athletic Complex in Hayward.
