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.
