Cal Poly Pomona puts on a good show despite the weather

More than 7,000 athletes gathered at Hilmer Lodge Stadium at Mt. SAC on Thursday for day one of the NCAA Division II Track and Field championships. One would have never guessed that the national meet was taking place in Southern California.

You could read the minds of those athletes from places like Abilene Christian, Nebraska-Kearney and North Dakota. THIS is Southern California? It was anything but sunny. Most of the opening day events took place in a steady drizzle and lightning halted the action twice for a total of three hours.

Athletes running the 10,000 meters were running at midnight.

The weather conditions made it hard for athletes to deliver their top performances and there was little or no crowd to speak of, just the diehards that were related to the competitors.

It's too bad because the Broncos staff worked long and hard to put on the best show possible and it was raining on their parade.

Perhaps the most comical moment came when an idiot from Humboldt State leaped the fence during the rain delay and raced around the track carrying a giant green flag with the a gold letter H. Staff quickly ushered him off the track but he kept running around the perimeter of the fence, finally doing a faceplant rounding the corner.

The second best moment came when the track announcer, who for much of the event gave great informative background on the athletes, introduced an athlete from the Broncos as being from Cal State Pomona.