The 2008 California Collegiate Athletic Association Track and Field Conference Championships held in Los Angeles from May 1 to 3 ended with mixed outcomes. Individually, some Gators performed well, with Anna Bretan earning All-CCAA honors in the 5000 and 3000-meter run. As a team, the Gators finished seventh out of eight teams.

“I am not at all satisfied,” coach Terry Burke said about the team ending up at the seventh place at Cal State L.A. “We are far off what was projected. I wish it had gone better.”

The Gators finished with 47.5 points, 15.5 points less than last year, when SF State ranked fifth out of nine teams. UC San Diego took first place for the fourth year in a row with a total of 248 points.

Burke said that a lot of athletes were not replaced between 2007 and 2008, which could partly account for the team’s performance.

“We did not have a big group, only 16 athletes competed,” Burke said. “We lost several athletes for family reasons, which set us back, but there is no excuse.”

The general rank set aside, some Gators made their mark. Bretan had the top performances of the meet, placing first out of 16 at the 5000-meter run with a time of 17:40.87 minutes, and took second place out of 14 at the 3000-meter run with a time of 10:08.35.

“Neither of these times were my personal records, but I felt both of my races went really well,” she said. “I would not have done anything differently. Most importantly, I had a lot of fun out there competing.”

Burke said he was impressed by Bretan’s performances and ability to race smartly.

“She is wise and has a much better perspective on how to run the race,” he said. “It was a very pleasant surprise to have her on the team.”

Thanks to her past few months’ performances, Bretan provisionally qualified for nationals which will be held on May 22 and 23 in Pomona.

Among other top performers at the meet, Sheila Cleland ranked seventh at both the discus and hammer events, Marissa Garza finished fourth at the discus with a mark of 39.01 meters and Anna Stetkevich ranked fifth out of eight competitors with a time of 15.12 seconds at the 100-meter hurdles.

“Melissa and Sheila did a nice job at the hammer,” Burke said. “Marissa was disappointed because she was well off what she can do.”

Maria Nelson finished fifth at the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.65 seconds and Kristen Para took fifth place with a high jump at 1.55 meters.

“I feel really good about my performance,” Para said. “I was experiencing a lot of emotions at my final track meet, so I am glad I kept focused and did what I was supposed to do. I did not want to walk away from track knowing that I could have done better, so I gave it all that I could.”

Approaching the end of the season, Burke looked back at what went wrong during the year.
“There were clashes of personalities and side issues and if there are external distractions, athletes are not going to be successful. There is a lot of room for improvement,” he said, adding that the movement has already started with the ongoing recruiting process that will bring at least 20 new athletes into the team in the fall semester.

“They will have to step up and show that they want to be here and be in this institution.”

The recruiting process, which used to take whoever came, will enlarge the Gator team with at least 20 new members, most of them being freshmen from California and receiving a scholarship ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 depending on their level of commitment and performance at the conference level. Fifteen out of the actual 26 athletes could return for another season with the Gators.

Burke supervised the recruiting process himself by talking to some future athletes on the phone, meeting individually with others and talking to their high school coaches who, he believes, are more balanced in their views.

He said he is looking forward to working with an all-new team, and has no interest in leaving it.

“We need to get some life, some freshness to the team,” he said.