Chico State Athletics

Amilia Santos, Ashley Jones, Aja Erskine and Kasey Barnett all turned in outstanding individual performances Saturday at the Wildcat Invitational. But when the four Chico State women’s track & field athletes combined forces to compete in the 4x100-meter relay, they succeeded in re-writing the Wildcat record book. A rare team effort is worthy of the latest Wildcat of the Week award.
 
Santos, Jones, Erskine and Barnett electrified the fans at University Stadium with a winning time of 46.98 seconds, posting an NCAA Provisional Qualifying mark and shattering the school’s previous 4x100 record by nearly three-tenths of a second. The time is also the third-fastest in the event in Division II so far in 2014.
 
The ’Cats quartet, competing individually, dominated several other Wildcat Invitational events Saturday. Jones placed first in both the 100-meter (12.26 seconds) and 200-meter (25.26 seconds) dash, with Santos finishing second in both races (12.36 seconds and 25.91 seconds, respectively).
 
Erskine took top honors in the 400-meter dash, clocking in at 56.73 seconds – a personal best that also ranks as the fifth-fastest time in Chico State history. Barnett bettered her existing NCAA Provisional Qualifying marks on the way to winning the pole vault with a PR height of 12-feet-10.25 and the long jump (19-feet-02.5).
 
The Chico State women’s track & field team is back in action Saturday, heading to the Bay Area to take part in the San Francisco State-hosted Johnny Mathis Invitational.