05.21.06 - FALCONS WIN SECOND STATE CHAMPIONSHIP IN SCHOOL HISTORY

            Last season, the Cerritos College women’s track and field team came within four points of winning their second state championship in school history, with their first coming in 1981. From the final day of last year’s championship, the team was already thinking about the next year. For the Falcons, that next year came over the weekend at Bakersfield College, as they captured their second state championship by accumulating 89 team points at the California Community Colleges Commission on Athletics Women's Track and Field Championship presented by U.S. Bank, which beat out second place Moorpark College, who finished with 80 points.

            “This was a complete team effort,” said Cerritos College Director of Track Doug Wells. “We talked about winning the state championship all season. After we came so close last season, we wanted the athletes to think about getting back here to be in a position to win it, and to their credit, the long hours and hard work paid off.”

            As with most track and field state championships, the final event of the day, the 1600-meter relay race has decided the title many times. But after sophomore Tatyanna Ricks (Lakewood HS) took a sixth place in the high jump, those three points put the Falcons one point ahead of the Raiders, who didn’t have any more opportunities to score. Cerritos was entered in the 1600-meter relay and wasn’t satisfied with a one-point win, and went out and came in second place in the race to finish with their nine-point advantage.

            There were many key moments in the team’s victory, but women’s head coach Michael Allen felt that the trio of heptathletes was what pushed the team over the edge.

            “We centered this team around our heptathletes,” Allen said of sophomores Jacqueline Taylor (Long Beach Poly HS), Ricks and Katie Black (Downey HS). “We knew coming into this season, they would be what could win us the title and I think they got us started in a great direction to this achievement. All the pieces had to fit into place and we just wanted to pick up as many points as we could in each of the events we were competing in.” Of the 18 entries, 16 scored points for the Falcons.

            The trio brought the team 21 points, as Taylor became the first Falcon in school history to win the heptathlon championship with a school-record 4499 points, while Ricks came in third and Black placed fourth. The trio and finished 1-2-3 in the Southern California Championship, a first in the state’s history.

            “I’m the first one ever to win the heptathlon?” asked Taylor after she collected her medal. “The goal all year was to win the heptathlon and I just wanted to improve on as many events as I could during the season,” added Taylor, who came in second last year in the state championships. “We all just wanted to help the team as much as possible and just tried to focus on one event at a time. We all wanted to do it for Coach GG (Gary Gaudet, who announced his retirement).”

            “This is a great way to go out,” said Gaudet, who spent 45 years with the Falcon track program and was the team’s heptathlon coach and was the head coach for their other state title in 1981. “I have an immense amount of pride for Jackie, Taty and Katie. They came out every day all season and put in three to four hours of work and this was the end result. I have never seen a group be this dominant at this level in my career. They all wanted to do well and without the help of Doug Wells, who worked with them on the throws and Debbie Jensen, who coached them in the jumps, this may not have been possible.”

            In addition to Taylor winning the heptathlon, the Falcons had another state champion in freshman Yasmin Webb (Buena Park HS), who pulled away from the rest of the competition in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:02.27. The Falcons also picked up a second and third place finish from sophomore Meryl Follosco (Kennedy HS) in the 10,000 meters and 1500 meters, respectively. Follosco entered the 1500 meters with the ninth place time and posted a solid 4:52.85. Sophomore Allison Sarell (Gahr HS), who turned in personal best distances, did a great job in the triple jump with a third place finish, while she also came in fifth in the long jump, with freshman Sherelle Dilworth (Vallejo HS) taking third place in both the 100 and 200 meters.

            “I was a little concerned coming into the meet today because you just never know what will happen,” said Wells. “But we got the points we needed in the right spots and everyone came through. I feel so rewarded to help Gary get this title in his last year. He knows the offer is always out there to come and help any time he wants. I’m also glad to be able to share this with Coach Allen, who I’ve known for the last 32 years. The coaching staff did a great job with all of the athletes and I think over the last four or five years, we started building for this and hopefully we can continue our success.”

STATE CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

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