SAN DIEGO -  The UC San Diego track and field teams were back in action this weekend, with student-athletes taking part in several competitions on Friday and Saturday. The Tritons competed in the Aztec and Point Loma Nazarene Invitationals, as well as the Occidental Distance Carnival and UCSD came away with impressive results in all three events.

The biggest highlights of the weekend came during the PLNU Invite, where senior Casey Ryan and sophomore Nick Howe continued to excel in their respective events. Ryan won the men's high jump and Howe placed first in the javelin, and both set new school records in the process.

Ryan cleared 7'3.25" to easily surpass his old record of 7'1", set at the San Diego City Collegiate Championships last week. His leap was not only an NCAA automatic qualifying mark, but also punched a ticket to the U.S. National meet, which will be held June 23-27 at Drake University.

"Casey was really on today," head coach Tony Salerno said. "That was a tremendous showing for us. He'll be competing against mostly post-collegiate professionals at the national meet and that's really special. We haven't had anyone compete at this level in many years."

Howe also took down his own program standard, besting the field with a toss of 214'7". His mark was good enough for an NCAA automatic qualifier and surpassed his old record of 206'3".

Ryan and Howe entered the 2010 season as the school record holders in the high jump and javelin, respectively, and have now topped those marks in successive weeks.

Kelly Fogarty had a strong showing for the sprints team, setting a new school record with a victory in the 200 meters. Her time of 24.17 eclipsed Elisa Holiday's mark of 24.24 (2004) and earned her a provisional qualifier in the event. Fogarty also won the 100, clocking in at 11.97.

Christine Merrill grabbed a provisional qualifier in the 200, finishing .01 behind Fogarty with a second place time of 24.18. She notched an automatic qualifying time in the 100 hurdles after finishing at 13.84 to win the event.

The Tritons were absolutely dominant on the women's side at the PLNU Invite, winning 12 out of 18 events. Linda Rainwater had three of those victories, winning the 800 meters (2:17.81), high jump (5'8"), and shot put (36'10.5").

Senior Fred Cook was one of a handful of athletes to represent UCSD at the Aztec Invitational and he came up with a big performance in the hammer throw, uncorking a toss of 188'01". His mark was good enough for an NCAA provisional qualifier and beat out the rest of the field by over 24 feet.

UCSD also sent members of the distance squad to compete in the Occidental Distance Carnival on Friday, with Daniel Anderson's performance in the 800 meter being the highlight of the day. The senior runner finished second overall with a time of 1:53.53, just missing a provisional qualifying mark.

Anderson finished second to Nicholas Thornton (1:53.09), who was competing unattached.

Next up for the Tritons is the Point Loma Collegiate Open on March 20 beginning at 10:00 a.m.