LONG BEACH, Calif. -- UC Santa Barbara’s Brad Thomas and Long Beach State’s Claudine Raud-Gumiel came out as winners in the decathlon and heptathlon, respectively, to close out the multi-events weekend of the 2025 Big West Men’s and Women’s Track & Field Championships, Saturday at Long Beach State’s Jack Rose Track.
The main weekend of the championships will take place May 16-17.
Decathlon
Thomas won the 10-event competition with 8108 points, a new stadium, school, meet and overall conference record. The previous meet record was 7631 points, set by Fresno’s Pete Mansur in 1984. The previous overall conference record was 8007 points, set by UC Irvine’s Mauricio Bardales in 1978. Long Beach State’s Ryan Gregory took silver with 7898 points, also under the previous meet record. Fello Beach decathlete Milo Orona was third with 7369 points.
The day started with Thomas with 4301 points, Gregory with 4131 points and Orona with 3942 points.
Gregory had the fastest 110m hurdle time at 14.81 for 873 points. Thomas (15.19/827 points) was second and fellow Gaucho Jeremiah Havens (15.25/821 points) was third.
UC Santa Barbara went 1-2-3 in the discus with Hudson Shaver (46.92/153’11”/806 points), Thomas (43.07m/141’3”/727 points) and Havens (42.10m/138’1”/707 points).
Gregory had the top pole vault clearance at 4.51m/14’9.5” for 763 points. Thomas and UC Davis’ Justin Reichenberg both cleared 4.41m/14’5.5” for 734 points to tie for second.
Thomas increased the margin with a throw of 64.42m/211’4” in the javelin for 805 points. Gregory (60.17m/197’5”/740 points) and Orona (56.23m/184’5”/681 points) were second and third, respectively.
Thomas cemented the decathlon win by taking the 1500m with a time of 4:34.64. Gregory was second at 4:36.41, followed by UC Santa Barbara’s Braylon Noble (4:39.68).
With four decathletes in the top eight, UC Santa Barbara leads the men’s team competition with 18 points, followed by Long Beach State with 14 points. Cal State Fullerton is third with four points.
Heptathlon
Raud-Gumiel won the seven-event competition with 5698 points. UC Irvine’s Jolie Robinson, the 2023 and 2024 champion, was second with 5524 points. Catherine Touchette of Hawai‘i took bronze with 5496 points.
Raud-Gumiel came into the day in the lead with 3489 points, followed by Robinson at 3309 points and Long Beach State’s Jenelle Hurley at 3252 points.
Raud-Gumiel had the furthest mark in the long jump at 5.93m/19’5.5” for 828 points. Hurley was right behind at 5.90m/19’4.25” for 819 points, followed by Touchette at 5.79m/19’0” for 786 points.
Robinson had the furthest throw in the javelin with a toss of 41.85m/137’3” for 703 points. Hurley (37.01m/121’5”/610 points) and Touchette (36.41m/119’5”/599 points) were second and third, respectively.
Touchette (2:12.71/925 points), Cal State Fullerton’s Olivia Walker (2:17.39/859 points) and Raud-Gumiel (2:17.67/855 points) went 1-2-3 in the 800m.
With first and fourth place finishes in the decathlon, Long Beach State leads the team competition with 15 points. UC Irvine is second with 12 points, followed by Hawai‘i with six points.
– The Big West
