LONG BEACH, Calif. — Triton track and field marked its first-ever appearance at The Big West Track & Field Championships this weekend with three individual event wins.

Tamara Aimufia won the women's long jump and Feyi Olukanni won the women's shot put on Friday. The Tritons then capped off the meet on Saturday with a win in the women's 4x400m relay. That team consisted of Jordyn Thomas, Idara Ibekwe, Lauren Schiele and Amari Jenkins.

All of The Big West Champions earned All-Big West honors. The Tritons also saw two others receive the award after finishing second in their respective events. Amari Jenkins picked up the award in the women's 400m hurdles, with Kelsie Yamano doing the same in women's steeplechase. Rachel Aguilar and Lauren McBride are also All-Big West honorees after helping the women's 4x400m team qualify for The Big West Championships earlier in the season.

The Triton women finished fifth in the team competition, while the men took seventh. The meet was held on Friday and Saturday and hosted by Long Beach State at Jack Rose Track.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Aimufia became the first Division I conference champion in program history on Friday afternoon when she won the long jump. The sophomore's winning mark of 6.08m came on her first jump of the day.
 
Olukanni also won her title on her first attempt of the day. The junior captured the shot put crown with a throw of 14.82m.
 
The field was a strong point for the Tritons on both days, with a total of 10 top-five finishes. Cesar Salazar was fourth in men's shot put and Zach Lewis with seventh. Both had career-best marks to improve on their second and third-best throws in school history. Kyle Wood finished fourth in men's javelin with a distance of 63.86m, which is good for third-best all-time by a Triton.
 
On the track, Yamano earned her All-Big West honors after running the steeplechase in 10:43.51. That time saw her finish just two seconds behind the race winner. Jenkins' All-Big West effort saw her come home in 58.21, the second-best time in school history.
 
Most of Friday's track action consisted of prelim races. The Tritons had 10 scholar-athletes advance out of their heats to Saturday's finals.
 
The women's 4x400m relay team had a winning time of 3:37.90 on Saturday. That result topped the school record by over two seconds.
 
UP NEXT
The West region first round of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships is May 28-31 at Texas A&M. The top 48 athletes in each event qualify for the meet, with the top 12 finishers that weekend qualifying for the National Championships June 11-14 in Oregon. The Tritons currently have three scholar-athletes in the top 48 of the West region: Miles Bennett (high jump), Anthony Flowers (200m) and Amari Jenkins (400m hurdles).
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.