The Sonoma State Women’s Track & Field team faced off against Cal State Eastbay on Saturday, Feb. 19th, their first event in over two years. SSU won 8 of the ten events they competed in at the Cal State East Bay tri-meet with Sonoma State, CSUEB, and Dominican University on Feb 19, including the 100-meter dash, 400-meter, and 4×100 meter relay. 

Some new faces for the Seawolves cross country squad made their SSU track and field debut. Last week’s CCAA track and field athlete of the week, Alex Boyle, a true freshman, made her track and field debut in the 1500 meters and the 4×400 meter relay. She assisted SSU to a first-place victory in the 4×400 meter relay with a timing of 4:22.00, about 20 seconds quicker than runner-up, Dominican University. Boyle also finished second in the 1500 meters clocking a time of 4:55.32, with Cal State East Bay’s Chase Worthen taking the top spot.

“Eastbay traditionally has had a strong distance program throughout the years,” said head coach David Lawrence. “At SSU, we are building a balanced program on the distance and trackside, which will always be to our advantage when we compete against teams in our conference that are one-sided.” 

The Seawolves have now had back-to-back dual meet victories versus Cal State East Bay stretching back to the 2020 season, before the pandemic. After a tremendous fall season, head coach Lawrence continues to make significant advances with both the cross country and track & field departments. 

Freshman Brittney Glor would extend the program’s recent success in the shot put, winning by more than four feet, 29’5.” Mia Oggenfuss, a dynamic competitor, would also participate in the shot put, finishing second with a mark of 25’4.” Oggenfuss would also make her SSU debut in the long jump, finishing in the top-5.

The race of the day, the 5000 meter, was also taken by Seawolves as Freshmen Abby Ribet carried her cross-country success from the fall into the spring track season. Ribet finished first with a timing of 19:40.50, more than a minute faster than the second-place finisher. Another freshman, Maddy Petersen, finished second in the event with a timing of 20:48.14. Freshmen Katie Sheldon and Sydney Lopes would make their SSU debuts in the 400 meters, finishing first and second, respectively, in the 2022 track & field season.

Coach Lawrence is confident in his team to be great but feels they’ll just become better and better as the season goes on. “This season will be somewhat of a rust buster early on for most of our athletes because of the Pandemic the last few seasons,” said Lawrence. “Our sophomores are competing for the first time since their senior year in high school and our freshmen had their senior season cut short. I expect our athletes to develop during the course of the year and become more skilled at their individual events. As a program, we want to qualify as many athletes as we can to our conference championship in May in order to place higher than the last championship in 2019 prior to my arrival. “

The Sonoma State Women’s Track & Field team is looking forward to the Kim Duyst Invitational, held by Stanislaus State March 4th and 5th.