Photo by SJSU Athletics
By Thomas Christian (@ThomasgoatNBA) — Reporter
San Jose State men’s track and field traveled to UC Berkeley for a day of casual dominance for the Spartans. SJSU athletes led in almost every category they entered, continuing the strong culture of track and field excellence in Silicon Valley.
The first event of the Cal Indoor Opener was a hammer throw — in which SJSU’s Bryan Quintero led all competitors with a throw of 60.82 meters — almost 10 meters further than the second-place finisher.
In the other throwing competitions, Jacob Lopez placed second in the shot put event by heaving his shot a whopping 16.37 meters. Lopez and Gabriel Coronado both placed in the top three of the discus event as well, with throws of 42.71 meters and 46.98 meters, respectively.
In other field events, SJSU’s Andy Wang placed third in the long jump event by leaping 6.65 meters. Richard Dang also took first place in the triple jump with an outstanding 12.90 meters.
Even with a stellar performance in the field competitions, SJSU’s history has always been with track events. This time out was no different, with several Spartans making the blue and yellow proud.
An early sign of their supremacy?
How about two separate SJSU relay teams taking first and second place in the men’s 400-meter relays.
Then, Micah Hairston showed what the Spartan name means in track and field when he took first place in the men’s 110-meter hurdles event and the men’s 400-meter hurdles.
He may not be leaping over tall buildings in a single bound, but Super Micah has been crushing the hurdles and leaping over his competition all season long.
Paul McCants followed Hairston’s lead when he took first in the men’s 200-meter dash, a full tenth of a second ahead of the rest of the field.
The day ended with the men’s 1600-meter relay. It may be surprising to some, but not all, as two more SJSU relay teams grabbed the top two finishes.
Just so we’re keeping track, San Jose State had five first-place finishes in the track competitions to go along with two more first-place finishes in field competitions. That’s seven first-place finishes out of only 14 events in which SJSU athletes were entered.
