Burnaby’s Nathan Mah laced ‘em up and ran it out, leading a strong Simon Fraser University track and field result at last week’s 2019 Triton Invitational, hosted by UC San Diego.
A junior and Burnaby Central alum, Mah captured top-10 finishes in both the 100- and 200-metre dashes with personal best times and anchored SFU’s 400m relay to a seventh place result.
Mah placed sixth in the 100m with a personal best- tying time of 10.75 seconds, just .08 seconds out of third position. It was his season-best time, equalling his mark set at last year’s GNAC championships.
In the 200m race, he established a new personal mark of 21.82 seconds en route to eighth overall.
Teaming up with Joshua Adhemar, Nate St. Romain and Kaito Suzuki, Mah helped set a new season best for the 4x100m relay with a time of 42.08, good for seventh place. Adhemar and St. Romain also competed in the 4x400m relay with Richard Torres and Carlos Vargas, finishing sixth with a season-best 3:18.86 for four points.
The women’s team, meanwhile placed ninth overall in a field of over 50 teams.
The 800m run continued to be a strong race for the SFU women, as four athletes placed in the top-15 with senior Alana Mussatto leading the pack to a second-place finish.
Mussatto had earlier this season made the NCAA Div. 2 provisional standard at the Mike Fanelli Track Classic, along with teammates Sophie Dodd and Paige Nock, but her 800m time of 2:09.68 is a new season-best. Dodd placed 10th with a 2:12.78, Nock was 12th with 2:13.27 and sophomore Mairin Shields-Brown set a new personal best with 2:13.54, good enough for 15th.
As the Clan's lone competitor in the women's 1500m, senior Miryam Bassett cracked a new personal best (4:28.91) with a second-place finish, just six seconds back of American Jenna Hinkle.
The women continued that momentum with another silver in the 1600m relay, which saw Dodd, Mussatto, Bryce West and Renate Bluschke improve on their early season provisional standard run with a 3:45.30 to come in second overall.
Other highlights from the women's side included Bluschke running SFU's best 400m of the season with a time of 56.37, which earned her sixth-place, as well as a personal best for West (57.90) in the same race.
In total, the women tallied 30 points, the second-best Div. 2 representative, behind only the host Tritons.
SFU’s Nick Bauernschmitt was just over a second off the provisional standard in the men's 800m run with a time of 1:53.15. Freshman Kaito Suzuki, meanwhile, ran the 100m in 11.33 for a new personal best, and both St. Romain and Adhemar improved on their career 400m hurdle times with 53.79 and 54.12 respectively.
SFU’s schedule continues next weekend with more California stops at the Bryan Clay Invitational, Mt. Sac relays and Long Beach Invitational.
