The Sacramento State track and field team continued its maturation process Saturday by performing well at the University of Washington Indoor Invitational.

The Hornet women finished with a record of 4-3, while the men finished the meet 2-2.

Collectively, the Hornets placed in the top three in three relay events. The women took second place in the distance medley relay with a time of 12 minutes 16 seconds, while the men placed third in the 4×400-meter relay at 3:19 and the distance medley relay at 10:22.

Head coach Joe Neff was pleased with the progress his young team showed Saturday and loves the outlook for the rest of the season.

“This was a very good meet for us, a meet that will definitely give us some momentum,” Neff said.

“Last week, I think we got most of the rust off and kind of orientated our young athletes to college competition. We’re running against good schools, Washington, Oregon, etcetera, and that will prepare us for league competition.”

Senior Jennifer Burkhalter paced the women, finishing second in the 800m with a time of 2:12. This was Burkhalter’s first action of the season as she missed last weeks meet in Reno due to illness.

“She ran really well,” Neff said. “I saw no signs of fatigue.”Burkhalter was an instrumental part of the women’s second place finish in the medley relay, running an excellent lead-off leg.

“She got out of the box in a hurry and that really helped set the pace,” Neff said.

Sophomore Shanita Bryant finished second in one of her strongest events, the long jump, and then was held out of her running events because of a tweak in her hamstring. Bryant’s lone jump of the competition measured 18-9.75 feet.

“She placed second with one jump,” Neff said. “She felt some tightness in her hamstring so we decided to pull her out of the rest of the meet.”

Bryant will also sit out this weekend’s invitational in Reno and rehab in time for the teams’ first league meet.

The men were lead with strong performances by junior Jonathan Davis and two freshman, Chris Santana and Geoffrey Fong.

Davis ran well in the 60m dash, placing third with a time of 6.81 seconds, and had a solid showing in the 200m, placing seventh at 22.86. Davis’ results came as no surprise to Neff.

“Davis is going to be in that top eight spot in every meet he competes in,” Neff said. “Again, he is one of our leaders, a vet.”

The surprise performances came from Fong and Santana.Fong placed fourth in the shot put, throwing a personal indoor best of 50 feet, 2.75 inches.

“I knew that he would improve from last weeks meet but I did not expect it to come this soon,” Neff said. “You’re talking about a lifetime best of over 50 ft., and that’s indoors.”

Santana also impressed with a solid showing in the 60m high hurdles. The freshman finished third with a time of 8.53.Neff is very confident that those athletes will qualify and looks forward to Saturday.

“This is the last meet to kind of iron out some wrinkles and get some athletes qualified,” Neff said.

“We want to gain some more confidence and get some more experience heading into league play.”