College of the Sequoias, Cerritos capture state track and field championships

Complete results | Photos | Broadcast replay

By Fred Baer
College of San Mateo Athletics

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Quincy Hall of College of the Sequoias and Juanita Webster of Cerritos College led their respective men’s and women’s teams to California Community College Athletic Association track and field championships Saturday night at American River College.

Hall pulled off an outstanding double in the flat 400 meters in 46.72 seconds and the 400 meter hurdles in 50.57 before running a 44.8 second leg on the Giants winning 4 x 400 meter relay team in the meet concluding event (3:09.56).

Sequoias totaled 127 points to finish well ahead of runner-up Mt. San Antonio (94), followed by Riverside (64), Diablo Valley (45), Hartnell (32), San Joaquin Delta (31), Modesto and Orange Coast with 28 each, and College of San Mateo (27). The Giants effectively grabbed the title with a 1-2-3 sweep in the 200 meters, led by Ryan Hall (20.96) and Isiah Hutchins (20.99) plus Kelly Brown (21.28) -- for 24 points – prior to capping it in the meet-ending relay. Brown had earlier won the 100 in 10.43, just ahead of teammate Ryan Hall (10.45).

Webster completed her wire-to-wire 2-day victory in the women’s heptathlon, winning the concluding 800 meters in 2:24.26 to total 5424 points and repeat as champion She finished nearly 500 points ahead of runner-up Jasmine Hall (4,995) of College of the Canyons.

With her win in the individual long jump and second place in the javelin on Friday, Webster had scored 28 points for the Falcons at that point – prior to the start of other finals competition on Saturday. She ended up competing in an amazing 12 events (including the seven in the heptathlon) over the two days.

After concluding the heptathlon on Saturday, Webster later won the 100 meter hurdles in 13.65 and the triple jump at 42-6 1/4 (both Cerritos College records) -- for a total of 48 individual points! Only five teams (including Cerritos) scored more.

Cerritos won the women’s title with a record 149.5 points, ahead of Sequoias (88), Mt. San Antonio (75), Laney (62), Riverside (58), Canyons (38), West Los Angeles (36), El Camino (33.5) and De Anza (33). It was the third straight women’s track title by the Falcons, a feat previously accomplished only by Sacramento CC and Mt. SAC. 

Webster was an obvious choice as women’s field athlete of the meet.

Track honors went to Strangenae Campbell of Diablo Valley, who repeated as 100 meter champion in 11.50 ahead of Kieana Butler of Mt. SAC (11.93) and also added the 200 meter title this year in 23.65 (where she had won the silver medal as a freshman). Campbell edged current national JC/CC 200 leader Meleni Rodney of Sequoias (by .06) in the longer race. (Rodney has run 23.25.) Tarika Moses of Sequoias, the national leader at 100 meters, finished third in 24.22. Both sprints had a slight headwind.

While Hall was the male track athlete of the meet, field honors went to pole vaulter Michael Fancey of San Joaquin Delta. He won with a first attempt clearance at 17-0 3/4. National JC/CC leader Jeff Gordan of Golden West, who has vaulted 17-3, was in the lead without a miss through 16-6 3/4, but couldn’t go higher. He took the silver medal on fewer misses over Asa Martin of Mt. San Antonio (with Christian Mueller of Mt. SAC settling for fourth place, also on the misses countback).

OTHER SEQUOIAS MEN’S WINNERS:

--The Giants 4 x 100 meter relay team in 39.45 (only CCCAA team to break 40 seconds this season);

--Bryce Huggins, 25-9 1/2 to repeat as long jump gold medalist.

ALSO ON THE TRACK:

--Michael Simpson of Riverside won Saturday’s opening men’s race, the 3,000 meter steeplechase, in 9:12.38, breaking away from silver medalist Manuel Fernandez of Mt. SAC (9:24.42) for a convincing victory.

--Eduardo Orozco improved his personal best by four seconds to win the 1,500 meters in 3:52.26 and upset defending champion Joshua Silva of Riverside, who was second in 3:54.23. Orozco is the only California CC runner to better 3:54 this year.  His Hartnell teammate Jorge Sanchez was equally impressive with a victory in the 5,000 meters in 15:14.77, ahead of Danny Dominguez of Orange Coast (15:19.08) -- who had won the 10K on Friday evening in 32:10.89.

--Antwuin Prowes of Diablo Valley won the 800 meters in 1:52.53, just holding off Silva (1:52.94) in that race. Prowes is the 2017 state leader at 1:52.03.

--Justin Walker of Fullerton won the 110 meter hurdles in 13.97, edging Asa Allen (13.99) of Hartnell in a photo finish. They were the first CCCAA athletes to better 14 seconds this season and had a legal aiding wind of 0.9 meters per second. Walker had taken the silver medal in the long jump on Friday.  

IN SATURDAY’S OTHER FIELD COMPETITION:

--Jack Phillips of College of San Mateo won an exciting 3-way high jump duel, clearing 6-11 on

his second attempt to take the lead – and the win -- over Rodney Morgan of City College of San Francisco, who made it on third try. Morgan had led with a first attempt clearance at the previous height of 6-9, which Phillips made on his third try. Also still in the mix at 6-11 had been favorite and state leader Tyler Arroyo of San Diego Mesa, with a best of 7-1. But Arroyo, who was standing third on the misses “countback” at that point failed in all three tries at 6-11 and finished third. Phillips and Morgan both failed to get over the 7-foot barrier when the bar went up 2 inches to 7-1, where the competition ended.

--Michael Thompson of Modesto won the triple jump, reaching 50-2 1/2 on his fourth jump to move ahead of Tristan Meye of De Anza, who had been in lead with his 49-5 3/4 mark in the second round. Meye, the state season leader at 50-5 1/2, took the silver medal.

--Kyle Jenkins added nearly two feet to his CCCAA shot put lead, reaching 57-3 3/4 (No. 2 nationally) to defeat runner-up Corey Gilbert of Diablo Valley, who also had a 2-foot improvement to 54-6 3/4. 

--Diablo Valley’s Craig Perkins won the discus with a third round throw of 168-7. Armon Hunter of Sequoias took  silver at 164-2. 

CHEEK MAKES SECOND DAY MOVE IN DECATHLON

Aaron Cheek of Cuesta came on strong on the second day of the decathlon to win going away with 6,329 points, finishing with a strong 4:40.31 win in the 1,500 meters. The battle was for second place, which College of San Mateo’s Nick Pallas held after the first day and kept going into the concluding 1,500 meters. 

Zachary Larson of Canyons was fifth in that race in 4:56.20, but his 582 points was enough to grab the silver medal with a 5,970 score. First day leader Elisha Edwards of Moorpark, who had fallen back, placed second in the 1,500 in 4:46.31 to earn 641 points and finish with a 5,953 points for the bronze medal. Pallas could manage only 5:26.38 in the 1,500 for 417 points and dropped to fourth place with a personal best 5,903.

CERRITOS WOMEN WIN 9 EVENTS:  

In addition to the four gold medals by Webster, wins by the Cerritos women included:  

--The Falcons repeat champion 4 x 100 meter relay team (composed in 2017 of Lilian Ebanks, Kymberlynn Jackson, Breanna Curry, and Meka Story), which ran 45.83 to nudge Mt. SAC by just .01;

--Mystasia Alexander, 149-8 in the javelin throw on Friday (just ahead of Webster, giving the Falcons the early lead in the overall competition);

--Skylin Harbin, 1:01.83 in the 400 meter hurdles;

--Breanna Curry with a first attempt clearance of 5-7 in the high jump -- defeating Danielle Spargur of Riverside, who got over on her third try for the silver medal.

--Amber Hart, 44-5 1/2 in the shot put.

OTHER WOMEN’S TRACK WINNERS:

--Meleni Rodney of Sequoias repeated as champion in the 400 meters, running 53.26 to edge teammate (and national JC/CC 100 leader) Tarika Moses (53.53) – the two fastest times in the state this year. 

--Diani Ellis of College of the Canyons opened Saturday’s track competition by winning the 3,000 meter steeplechase in 11:15.61 (just off her state leading 11:14.04 best), to beat second ranked Angelica Salas of Glendale, who improved to 11:26.45.

--Alyssa Block of Sequoias, the state leader at 1,500 meters, ran 4:36.72 to hold off silver medalist Giselle Masedo (4:39.62) of Glendale.

--Savanna Perez of San Bernardino Valley added a half second to her state leading 800 time with a convincing 2:12.15 victory, ahead of Teuila Gardner (2:16.16) of Mt. SAC.

Miranda Daschian of Cuesta defeated a pair of other champions to win the 5,000 in 17:33.18. The runner-up was 10,000 champ, Jordyn Zorn of Sequoias, in 17:41.16. Block, the 1,500 champ, took bronze in 17:42.13. Zorn had opened the running competition on Friday evening with a convincing 10K win in 36:33.68, just shy of her already state leading season mark of 36:33.14.

--Sequoias won the concluding 4 x 400 meter relay in 3:42.75, a 2-second improvement over its state leading time. Cerritos was second in 3:47.63. 

ALSO IN THE FIELD SATURDAY:

--Any Tonga of De Anza won the discus with her third round throw of 153-04. Ailinisilose Williams of Cerritos was second at 150-2. Those were also the top two throws in the state this year. Tonga took silver in the shot put at 44-2 3/4, behind Hart of Cerritos.

--Madison McPeak of Riverside won the pole vault with a first attempt clearance at 11-7. She had trailed a quartet of opponents (on the misses countback) going up to that height, which the others then failed to clear. Cassie Young of Shasta had the tiebreaker at 11-1 for silver and Sydney Holmes of Modesto took the bronze.

WEBCAST: Webcasts of the 2017 CCCAA Track & Field Championships are archived on www.baosn.tv

The meet will also have a delayed telecast (from the webcast) on PENTV on the San Francisco Peninsula.