The Sacramento State men’s and women’s track and field team completed their first indoor meet of the season Saturday in Reno at the Nevada Wolf Pack Invitational. The men’s team placed third out of 12 teams with a final score of 58, while the women placed eighth out of 15 teams with a score of 22.

Sac State was without some of its best performers Saturday. Bobby McNeil and Jennifer Burkhalter were unable to participate because of sickness and Amy Dean, the team?s best pole-vaulter, was unavailable to compete due to personal reasons.

“Not only are we rusty, but a lot of our athletes have never run indoors before so there is an adjustment that you have to make as far as the track surface,” Hornet coach Joe Neff said. “There were some other teams who have had one or two meets under their belts, but this was our first.”

Juniors Jonathan Davis, Kenan Smith and freshman Obi Osuji ran well for the men’s side of the competition. Davis placed second in the 55-meter dash, running a career-best 6.37 seconds that was good for second place. Davis also placed sixth in the 200-meter run, registering a time of 22.71 seconds.

Smith recorded the team?s only first-place finish during the invitational with a time of 49.89 seconds in the 400-meter dash.

“(Davis and Smith) are definitely the anchors of our team,” Neff said. “We have 52 new athletes on the team this year, so there is no question we will be looking to them for leadership.”

Osuji turned in a decent performance in the 400 as well, crossing the finish line at 50.77. He held a strong lead until a dead spot on the track knocked him off his rhythm.

“The track had a lot of dead spots and uneven terrain, so when Obi hit that spot, he just couldn’t recover,” Neff said.

Also placing for the Hornets were 3000-meter runners Cuco Chavez (6th), Jacob Mills (8th) and Mike Santarosa (10th). Stephn Gaitan placed eighth in the 800 and Anthony Elwell finished sixth in the mile.

Junior Annette Corey paced the woman?s team, placing third in the 5000-meters with a time of 19 minutes, 41 seconds. Sara Swan finished fourth at 19:46 and Amy Cockerham placed sixth with a time of 20:39.

Defending Big Sky Conference long jump champion Shanita Bryant finished 19th in the 55-meter dash at 7.40 and sophomore Stephanie Byrd placed 21st at 7.41.

The prospects of the 2002 season are exciting to Neff, as he looks forward to a strong performance from his young squad.

“We will get better and I’m very excited about our new athletes. You wait and see,” Neff said.