COLLEGE OF SAN MATEO SPORTS INFORMATION
April 12, 2006 For Immediate Release

Contact: Fred Baer 650-345-4114

First Home Meet In Three Years Sends CSM Pair To State:
MULTI-EVENTERS VAN STRAATEN & SILVA SCORE IN NORCAL CHAMPS

Andrew van Straaten and Helena Silva have earned spots in the California Community College Track and Field Championships next month. The two freshman posted solid second day performances in the Northern California Combined Events Championships, which concluded Wednesday afternoon at CSM's new Mondo track.

Van Straaten scored 5,488 points to finish a strong third in the 10-event decathlon competition, won by Hartnell sophomore Chris Brown with 5,888 points.

Silva was fifth in the seven-event heptathlon with 3,222 points. Christina Hibbert of American River won the competition by a 342 point margin, scoring 3,965 points.

The top six finishers in both competitions qualified for the state championships at Bakersfield College, May 19-20.

This is the sixth consecutive year CSM has qualified an athlete for the decathlon finals and the fourth year in a row for the heptathlon championships.

Van Straaten started the second day in fourth place. He won his heat of the 110 meter high hurdles in 16.82 seconds, equaled his personal best in the pole vault (11 feet, 5 3/4 inches), and had personal bests twice in the javelin throw (improving to 146-3 on his last attempt). “My old PR was 132 feet,” van Straaten said. “The rain didn’t really matter. I got a PR of 141 on my first throw.”

He had the top discus throw (103-9), an event he also contests in individual meets, and had the second best marks of the day in both the pole vault and javelin. That gave van Straaten, a red-shirt freshman out of Los Altos High, nearly a 300-point cushion over fourth place entering the concluding 1,500 meters and a 5:23.82 clocking there didn't hurt his final rank.

Silva improved her seventh place standing from the first day of the women's heptathlon to finish fifth
in her first try at the seven-event competition. The freshman out of Sacred Hearth Cathedral High moved into the top six with a 14-foot, 8 1/2 inch long jump on Wednesday's first event and then climbed into fourth place with a 101-8 javelin throw. Both were the second best marks of the day in those events. “I was very happy with my javelin mark,” Silva said. “It was apersonal best an if I can PR in the javelin in the wet conditions we had today, I can PR in anything.

She concluded with a 2:36.93 run in the 800 meters to improve her margin over sixth place Naomi Spruell of Modesto.

Another CSM freshman, Alicia Jimenez, finished 11th in the heptathlon with 2,707 points. The Capuchino grad had second day performances of 11-9 in the long jump, 92-5 in the javelin, and 2:32.98 in the 800 meters. The latter time will qualify her for the 800 at the NorCal Trials next month.

San Mateo now has six points in the Northern California men's championships and four points in the women's championships. That meet will continue with trials in individual events at CSM on May 5 and finals at Sacramento City College on May 13 -- to determine state meet qualifiers in the remaining events.

In spite of almost continuous rain throughout the two-day meet, all 22 athletes who started the competition completed their events on the new all-weather CSM complex. “This is a very high class facility,” CSM coach Joe Mangan said. “It held up very nicely in these conditions.” CSM will be the site of the 2007 state championships

All three CSM athletes were competing in multi events for the first time.