SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- With the help of nearly its full squad—the largest in school history—Biola's track and field teams netted six first and second place finishes, added four more indoor qualifiers and broke three school records at the Westmont Indoor Invitational, a non-scoring meet on Saturday afternoon in Santa Barbara.
Senior Kelsey Gasner had one of three record-breaking performances for the Eagles on Saturday. Gasner took first place in the mile, recording a school record and indoor qualifying time of 5:02.25. That bestest the previous record held by teammate Nychele Fischetti set last season.
Senior Natasha Miller continued to better her school record in the long jump, one of two first-place finishes for Miller on the afternoon. Her long jump mark of 5.65 meters equaled her indoor personal best and broke her previous school record of 5.63 meters set back in 2009. Miller also won the 60 hurdles with a time of 8.97.
The women's 4 x 400 relay also broke the school record and qualified for the indoor nationals. The quartet of Ashley Bush, Brooke Forsi, Miller and Gasner combined for a time of 3:55.49, breaking the old record of 4:00.89 by more than five seconds.
Other first-place finishers were junior Clarissa Kenney in the 1,000 m run (3:13.67) and the women's 4 x 800 relay team of Chelsea Janzen, Rachel Stump, Fevan McNichols, and Kenney (9:46.14).
Second place finishes went to Gabe Aeschliman in the 600 with a time of 1:23.70, just shy of his school-record performance of 1:22.36 which he set last week at the Concordia Invitational.
In the women's 600, junior Brooke Forsi raced to a second-place finish with an indoor national automatic qualifying time of 1:37.00.
Other second place finishers included freshman Marc Opena in the high jump (1.7 meters), Alex Calkins (4.40 meters) and Taylor McCahon (3.20 meters) in the men's and women's pole vault, and junior Nychele Fischetti, who took second in the mile with an automatic qualifying time of 5:11.86.
Also qualifying for the indoor nationals in the mile was third place finisher Carissa Bowman with her 5:12.61.
Biola's next meet is scheduled for Saturday when the full men's and women's teams will be in action at the Azusa Pacific Indoor Qualifier. Field events begin at 10 a.m. and track events start at 10:30 a.m.
