Reporter

The CSU Bakersfield track and field teams get its season started as they look to build off of last year’s success.

“We’re progressing pretty fast and we’re in a lot better shape than we were last year,” said sophomore Alec Benavides who is a team captain for the men’s team.

Benavides is entering his second year as a multi-event competitor for the Runners and is just 2 1/2 inches shy of entering the CSUB top 20 for high jump.

“I think we’re going to be pretty successful this year,” said Benavides.

Last year two track and field men were sent to the NCAA championships and graduated senior Karnell Grimes was awarded the Western Athletic Conference Stan Bates award in 2015 for best student athlete in the conference, one of WAC’s top honors. Grimes’ event is javelin and holds the fourth longest throw in CSUB history.

The women’s team also did well last year with a school record of four all-conference athletes, before that the record was one. The women’s team also earned an All-Academic Award for achieving a team GPA of over 3.0. The team has since graduated three all conference male athletes: Karnell Grimes (javelin), Brian Wilmert (throw), and Richard Maestre (hurdles), and did not lose any female athletes due to graduating. The team is also adding three new male athletes to the program.

CSUB’s track and field team will participate in the NAU invitational on the Feb. 12-13 weekend at Flagstaff, Arizona.

“Were going to focus on what we can do well, and try to put as many people as we can on the podium,” said head coach and director of track and field Marcia Mansur-Wentworth. “We’re working very hard to do a little bit better every year.”

Mansur-Wentworth also said that they won’t be featuring any short sprinters this year.

“Part of that is our roster limit and part of it is funding,” she said.

The track and field program has only funded 25 percent of the NCAA limit and 30 percent of the maximum for women. They will attempt to focus on the events where they will be participating in rather than focus on the negatives.

“That’s just a challenge that I will have to work harder on,” said Mansur-Wentworth.

Benavides transferred to CSUB mid-season last year and has quickly become a key member of the track and field program. Benavides said that the team’s chemistry would help them succeed coming into the 2016 season.

“Making sure we’re staying on course over in the guy’s side and motivating each other to have a positive attitude coming into every practice,” said Benavides.

Senior Tricia Cervantes is a heptathlon competitor and is the head team captain for all track and field.

“Everybody’s attitude is extremely positive and they’re really encouraging of each other,” said Cervantes. “We have some new athletes that are showing some really great progress in training alone.”

Cervantes’ score for heptathlon at WAC last year was the third best score all-time for CSUB and the best since 1995. She also earned a spot on the top 20 list for 100m hurdles, 400m hurdles, and high jump. Cervantes welcomes anyone interested in joining track and field that is willing to put the work in.

“We’d definitely be happy to have new people come out,” said Cervantes. “It’s a great program, its small right now but we are working on building our program and training each other into some high quality people.”

The CSUB women and men track and field teams opened up its 2016 season at the Northern Arizona University Friday night duals on Jan. 22 in Flagstaff, Arizona.