Megan Rolland and Nick Lohse led the Jacks at the CCAA Championships.
LA JOLLA — Megan Rolland secured Humboldt State's lone individual title Saturday, racing to victory in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase at the California Collegiate Athletic Association Track and Field Championships. The senior from Emmett, Idaho, blasted away from the field to claim a comfortable win in a time of 10 minutes, 38.70 seconds, 16 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
The Jacks' senior then finished her final conference championship meet with a second-place finish among 25 athletes racing the 5,000 meters. Only hours after her steeplechase win, Rolland raced the 5K in 17:39.35, placing just three seconds behind Chico State's Tori Tyler.
"Megan's steeplechase broke her own CCAA meet record, and it was a pretty comfortable effort for her," HSU head coach Sandy Moran said. "She came back and finished very strong in the 5,000. She's running well within herself, and getting amazing results."
Rolland's two events added 18 points to Humboldt State's team total of 47, placing the Jacks eighth in the women's team competition. In the men's standings, the Jacks managed 45 points, finishing sixth overall as a team.
Chico State dominated the men's competition, finishing with 290.5 points to UC San Diego's 140. Chico also claimed the women's team championship narrowly out-pointing UCSD, 212.33 to 209.5.
"We lacked the depth to mount a challenge in the team standings, but that doesn't take away from the great individual efforts," Moran said.
For HSU, freshman Laura Tesch earned the Jacks' next highest placement of the day, taking third in the high jump by clearing a height of 5 feet, 3 1/4 inches. Heather Snyder also garnered a third-place showing, putting the shot 42-10 1/4. The effort helped the sophomore finish with a two-day production of 11 points.
Brittany Peterson achieved her top performance this spring in the pole vault, clearing 11-2 1/2 to take fifth among the field of 15 athletes. Melissa Murillo capped her HSU career with a seventh-place finish in the women's triple jump, extending a season-best 35-9 1/2.
Humboldt State's men earned a huge boost from Nick Lohse, who shocked the field with a second-place finish in the men's discus, the Jacks' best effort in the two-day meet. Lohse, who hadn't cracked the league's top 10 all season, hurled the discus 149 feet, 8 inches, only three feet shy of the winning mark achieved by Chico State's Derek Nichols. Lohse' mark was an improvement of almost 25 feet over his previous best.
"Nick came a long way in learning how to compete," Moran said. "He displayed the focus that you need to perform well."
Racing the 3,000-meter steeplechase for only the third time in his collegiate career, Nick LaPlant continued his rapid progress with a season-best time of 9:29.83 that placed him fifth in the talented field.
Tim Bishop and William Burgess provided HSU with highlights in the hurdles, both placing sixth in their respective event. Bishop vaulted the 400-meter barriers in a time of 56.55, and Burgess sprinted the 110-meter hurdles in 16.13 seconds.
Brad Wright squeezed out another point for the Jacks with an eighth-place finish in the discus, tossing the platter 138-4.
One day after scoring solid points for HSU in the 10,000 meters, Austin Huff and Andrew Sylvester added to their team's total by finishing seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 5,000. Working together throughout the race, Huff timed 15:12.15 and Sylvester was clocked in 15:13.67.