By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

HAYWARD, Calif. -- Jewell Sparks (Sr., San Francisco, CA/Lick Wilmerding HS) of Willamette University placed fourth in the women's 400-meter hurdles and Saige Swan (So., Crescent City, CA/Del Norte HS) finished fifth in the men's shot put, during the second day of the San Francisco State Distance Carnival on Saturday, March 31. San Francisco State University hosts the Distance Carnival each year. This season, the meet was moved to Chabot College due to damage sustained by SFSU's Cox Stadium track.

Sparks registered a time of 1:04.75 in the 400-meter hurdles. Dakota Steen of Oregon State University won the event in 1:02.62, as she held off Jenavieve Turner of Chico State University, who took second in 1:02.87. Sera Madden of Western Oregon University placed third at 1:04.70, just 0.05 in front of Sparks.

Swan set a personal record on his way to earning fifth place in the shot put. His best throw of the day was 45' 9.00". He surpassed his previous record of 46' 7.25" set earlier this season at the Chico State Invitational on March 10. Swan's new personal record was just 3/4 of a inch out of fourth place at the Distance Carnival. First place went to Chris Steffy of Western Oregon, with a toss of 48' 6.25".

On Saturday, Swan also set a career-best in the hammer throw. He attained a top distance of 129' 6" to break his previous personal record of 128' 10.75" on March 24 at this year's Willamette Invitational.

Brian Peck (So., Reno, NV/Reno HS) also established a personal record for the Bearcats when he was timed at 16.47 seconds in the men's 110-meter hurdles. He just beat his previous top time of 16.48 seconds, which he set at this year's Willamette vs. Corban Dual on March 15. Peck, a decathlete, also competed in the shot put and claimed a top mark of 32' 3.50".

In the men's 400-meter dash, Jack Wellman (Sr., Alameda, CA/Alameda HS) of Willamette completed the race in 50.51 seconds. He placed 16th out of 70 runners in the event, and missed 15th place by four thousandths of a second. Cameron Wrout from Boise State University, also was timed at 50.51, but had a slightly better time (50.501) than Wellman (50.505) when the times were rounded to a third decimal.

Bridgette Peirce (Sr., Reno, NV/Earl Wooster HS) of WU competed in the women's 400-meter dash and finished with a time of 1:01.24. She placed 30th out of 64 runners and just missed her personal record of 1:01.22, set at this year's Chico State Invitational.

Willamette's Teneah Rushen (Sr., Portland, OR/Franklin HS) earned a tie of 13.37 seconds in the women's 100-meter dash. She was 24th out of 58 competitors.

The Bearcats will be back in action on Friday, April 6 at the John Knight Twilight, hosted by Western Oregon University. The meet will be held in Monmouth, Oregon, starting at 1 p.m. (PDT).