Sac State track and field coach Joe Neff has been anxious to gauge his team?s outdoor potential, and Saturday?s season opener at Hornet Stadium proved why.

After eighth-place finishes in the Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships, the Hornets? women?s team swept the competition in the fifth Bruce Drummond Invitational (named after the former Sac State track and cross country coach) while the men finished 3-2, but barely. The men were defeated by non-league teams Humboldt State, 81-73, and UC Riverside, 75-71.

“This is the best start I?ve ever seen out of this team and it was against some good competition,” Neff said.

Also present were Fresno Pacific, Southern Oregon and Big Sky rival Portland State. The heptathlon and decathlon kicked off the contest on Thursday and the finals took place the following day, as Ebony White, Peter Ucovich and Brandon Lynch were the first Sac State members to rack up Big Sky Conference qualifying marks this year.

White, a freshman, surpassed the qualifying mark of 3,079 with 3,253 points for first place. Ucovich, with the standard set at 5,148 in the decathlon, won with 5,685 while his fellow sophomore teammate, Lynch, despite suffering a pulled hamstring, scored 5,299 and finished second.

“They all did pretty well for their first time out in the (heptathlon and decathlon),” Neff said.

On Saturday, the Hornets claimed 14 events, 10 by the female contingent, and nine individuals earned bids to the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships.

Freshman Shanita Bryant snatched up three first-place honors in the 100-meter dash (11.97 seconds), 200-meter dash (24.64) and the long jump (19 feet, 10.5 inches) and will also advance to the conference meet in all three events. The long-jump mark is now second best in Sac State history. Bryant also anchored the Hornets? 4×100 meter relay team, which took first.

“What we?re doing is finding athletes that can qualify in multiple events,” Neff said. “That?s how you win conference. So we?re doing a lot of experimenting.”

Joni David also qualified in the100, finishing a step behind Bryant in 11.99. She joined Bryant, Stephanie Byrd and Myesha Kirtman on the relay team. Sac State was well represented in the women?s long jump, as David qualified with an 18-09.25 leap for third place, and Karen Trapini an 18-10.00 for second. In addition, Trapini stamped her name into the record books with her first-place mark of 39-11.50 in the triple jump, a qualifying measurement and a personal record.

Tracy Dahl has also left her mark in Sac State track and field history, breaking the school record of 11-8, set by herself last season, in the pole vault and also earning an NCAA provisional mark of 12-06 for second place.

Kirtman took first and earned a conference qualifier in the 100-meter high hurdles in 14.29, edging out teammate Renee Warner (14.32), who will also participate at the league championships.

Jennifer Burkhalter and Sharita Reed were the top two finishers, respectively, in the 400-meter dash, but neither of their times (57.83 and 59.28) were qualifiers.

Without its top distance runners, Melissa Madeson and Annette Corey, in the mix because of tendonitis, Sac State was able to hold its own with Anne Koscki, who finished first in the 5,000-meter run in a life-time best 18:40.38, and Tina Limon, who finished third in the 800-meter run in 2:20.18.

Limon and Heather Clark, filling in for David and Bryant, joined Nikkita Moorer and Burkhalter in the 4×400 relay and was triumphant by a large margin, clocking in at 4:03.13. Windi Selle, competing unattached, won the hammer throw with a 154-02 toss.

The lone qualifiers on the men?s team were Jonathan Davis and Shawn Hooper. Davis was in the 100, taking first in 10.65. Shawn Hooper, a freshman, clocked in at 54.75, his second best time ever, in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles en route to first place.

Hooper led the men?s 4×400 foursome to victory as did Davis in the 4×100.

“The men?s team is just not as deep as the women?s, but we do have our standouts there,” Neff said.

The Hornets will venture south this weekend to begin the US Track Coaches Association Series Meet in San Luis Obispo.