The Western State Conference Women’s Track and Field championship had never been held by Santa Barbara–until now.

The team placed first overall in their conference before heading to the Southern California preliminaries last weekend. The Men’s team placed fourth in the league.

“Everyone looks healthy and strong coming off a great weekend like that,” head coach Keith Kephardt said.

The team performed well and has several athletes in the finals next weekend. The biggest winners include Monica Su, Sarah Ingram and Danielle D’Alfonso for the women and Chad Freeman and Robert Nooney for the men.

“When you sit back as a coach and ask them what they want to accomplish, they want to set realistic, reasonable goals,” said Kephardt. “We’ve exceeded them.”

The women’s team continued to shine with several performers placing high and qualifying for SoCal Finals.

Su placed first overall in the women’s 3000 meter steeplechase. D’Alfonso took second overall in the pole vault, tied with eight other competitors.

Sarah Ingram placed fifth overall in the shot put. She placed second in the javelin and ninth in the 100 meter intermediate hurdles.

Ingram placed fifth in the long jump and seventh in the high jump. She also placed fifth overall in the heptathlon.

Rose Woodward placed eleventh in the shot put. She finshed eighth overall in the 100 meter intermediate hurdles. In the long jump, she placed eighth overall and twelfth in the high jump. She was seventeenth in the heptathlon.

The Men’s Track and Field’s unit was paced by Freeman and Nooney.

Freeman finished first in his heat and eighth overall in the 100 meter dash. He placed first in the 400 meter dash. He also took second in his heat and third overall in the 1500 meter run.

Freeman placed ninth in the discus throw. In the shot put, he finished twenty-first. He placed fourth overall in the pole vault and sixth in the 110 meter Intermediate Hurdles.

He also performed well in the Decathlon, taking fourth overall.

Nooney also won his 100 meter heat, placing tenth overall. In the 400 meter dash he ended eighth overall. He placed twelfth overall in the discus throw.

Nooney placed fourteenth overall in the Shot Put and fourth in pole vault.

Rapael McKinney placed third in his heat and sixteenth overall in the 400 meter dash. Thomas Mays tied eleven other competitors with the second highest jump of 6’2″ in the high jump competition.

Robert Young placed tenth overall in the long jump.