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| 5.17.08 - Cerritos Track won their second state title in three years. |
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The Cerritos
College women's track and field team captured
their second California Community College
Athletic Association state championship on
Saturday afternoon by using their depth to pull
away from their competition. The host Falcons,
who also won the state title in 2006, finished
the championships with 101 team points, which
beat out second place West Los Angeles College,
who finished with 92.5 team points.
It was a
complete team effort for the Falcons, who had at
least one entry in 14 different events, while
they had multiple entries in four field events
and two distance races.
On the first
day, freshman
Whitney Ashley (J.W. North HS)
helped the Falcons take an early lead by winning
with discus with a toss of 147' 2", with
sophomore
Jarvina McClain (El Rancho HS)
taking fourth place at 131' 10". A big volume of
points came in the shot put, as Ashley placed
second at 42' 3.5", while teammates
Maria Rodriguez (Bell HS;
4th place, 41' 6.5"),
Aunjanae Stovall (Lynwood HS,
5th place, 41' 6") and
Rachel Butler (Calvary Chapel
HS; 7th place, 40' 2.25"), which earned the
team 19 points in that event alone.
Also winning a
state championship was freshman Jessica
Barfield (Lynwood HS) in the
triple jump with a leap of 40' 1.5", which
breaks the record she set last week at the
Southern California Championships. She collected
eight more team points for the Falcons with her
second place finish in the long jump with a
distance of 18' 4.25", which also ties for the
second longest distance in school history.
Both Ashley and
Barfield were
named the
Women's Co-Field
Athletes of the
Meet.
A cluster of
team points also came via the javelin on Friday,
with Butler coming in sixth place (116')
and freshman
Karen Guravska (El Dorado HS)
placing seventh at 115' 7". Guravska also turned
in a fifth place performance in the pole vault
at 10', while the trio of Ashley (5th place,
143' 10"), Rodriguez (7th place, 139' 6"),
while freshman
Alexandria Thompson (El Dorado
HS) came in 11th place at 124' 6" in the
hammer.
In the running
events, the Falcons saw the duo of freshmen
Sarah
Muniz (Santa Fe HS) and
Daisy
Perez (Bell Gardens HS)
check in with fourth and seventh place finishes,
respectively in the 3000-meter steeplechase.
Muniz just missed out on breaking the school
record time of 11:48.63, set by Lynette
Thompson in 2005, and settled for a
time of 11:49.28, which is the second fastest
ever. As for Perez, she checked in with the
third fastest time in school history with a
clocking of 12:06.55. In the 10,000 meters on
Friday, freshmen
Shannon Simpson (Fountain
Valley HS) placed third in 40:18.77, while
Lucy
Beuster (Kennedy HS) saw
her time of 40:30.16 put her in fourth place.
Simpson also competed in the 5000 meters and
checked in with a fifth place time of 19:55.65.
Both relay
race teams competed, with the 400-meter relay
team coming in fifth place at 47.83, while the
1600-meter relay team placed eighth in a time of
4:01.10. As for sophomore
Patrice Fernandes (Loara
HS/Santa Ana College) in the 400-meter
hurdles, she placed fifth in 1:04.03, while
freshman
Erin Straughter (Valencia HS)
came in ninth place in the 100-meter hurdles
with a time of 15.10.
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