Sac State’s track and field team parted ways over the weekend as the women traveled to San Diego State University for the Aztec Invitational and the men stayed close competing at the University of California, Berkeley in the Brutus Hamilton Invitational.

With two assistant coaches in Berkeley and Head Coach Joe Neff with the women’s team in San Diego the track and field team was able to showcase their talents at two competitive meets.

“It is a huge departure from what has happened in the past,” Coach Joe Neff said. “It is a tribute to the athletic department giving us the funds to do things like this.”

In San Diego senior Myesha Kirtman led the women, taking three top-five finishes. Kirtman, the Big Sky Conference leader in the 100-meter hurdles placed third in the event with a time of 14.95 seconds, more than a second behind her season best.

“She didn’t have a good 100-meter hurdle race, there were technical problems with her start and first hurdle,” Neff said.

Myesha did place second in the 100-meter event with a time of 12.65 and also ran for the Hornets in the 200-meters with a time of 25.87. The fact that the men were not competing at the womens-only invitational put additional strain on the athletes because they had less time to recuperate between races.

Despite being hampered with a hamstring pull that happened at practice on Friday, Kirtman also anchored the women’s 4×100 relay team which with a time of 49.11, bested their competitors from San Diego State, Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, the University of Utah and Southern Utah University.

Freshman La Vietra Stanton led off the relay, while sophomore Stephanie Byrd took the second leg, and senior Sharita Reed took the third leg, followed by Kirtman.

Reed also competed in two other events, taking fourth in the 200-meters with a time of 25.78 and fifth in the 400-meters with a time of 58.00.

“She is a workhorse and runs a lot of events for us,” Neff said. Sophomore Angela Mercado took second place in the 1500, her best performance so far in the event in her two seasons at Sac State.

“When she was a freshman she ran in the 200 and 400-meter races, now she has branched out and is running well in the 800-meter and 1500-meter races,” coach Neff said.

But senior Windi Selle was able to give the performance of her four-year career when she set a school record in the hammer throw with a distance of 169 feet-6 inches.

Selle was not alone in the record setting department.

At Cal, her teammates, senior Cuco Chavez and freshman Bobby McNeil, were able to obtain their career-best times in the 1500. Chavez outdid the rest of the field, placing first with a time of 3:52.41.

With his new found success in the 1500, Neff now finds himself struggling with a two race superstar.

“He (Chavez) has also ran very well in the 800-meters and now I am going to have to make a decision on where he is going to race,” Coach Neff said.

Freshman Bobby McNeil also impressed coaches with his lifetime best of 3:57.48 in the 1500. Junior Jay D.Coles, who finished third in the Big Sky while competing in the triple jump in the indoor season, is getting back to his indoor form.

Coles placed third in the invitational in the long jump with a jump of 22 feet-10.75 inches and also took fourth in the triple jump, covering a distance of 44-7.5.

Neff predicts that by the end of the season Coles will be having no problems getting over the 23-foot mark in the long jump.

Freshman Nick Santana took third in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.79, which obliterated his time of 55.04 that earned him a first place finish a week earlier.

The fact that the Hornets were posting similar times in comparison to past meets, but not placing as well, shows that Sac State is beginning to compete with a more elite base of track teams.

Coming off two first place finishes last week, sophomore Christopher Brown fell to fourth place in both of his short distance events. Brown posted a time of 11.13 in the 100-meters and in the 200-meters recorded a time of time of 21.97, both times were not up to par with times Brown has brought in for Sac State earlier this season.

A third place finish in the men’s 4×400-meter relay with a time of 3:19.17 was not a time the Hornets expected to post according to Neff, who expects his roster to be clocking a time of 3:13 in the event.

An unexpected injury also compromised the Hornets performance in the 4×100 relay when freshman Antario Woods pulled up with a bad quad muscle while running anchor in the race. Considering the extremities, Neff was still pleased with a time of 42.05 and a fourth place finish.

The Hornets will divide and conquer again next weekend as some of the team will be headed to the Mt. Sac relays in Walnut, California starting on Thursday, while the rest of the roster will head over the Causeway to compete in the Woody Wilson Invitationals on Saturday at UC Davis.