Cougars Qualify For SoCal Championships in 14 Events
The COC women’s team will send 13 individual student-athletes to compete in seven events. Likewise, the men’s team will compete in seven events with a team of 12.
The College of the Canyons track & field program began its postseason hunt at the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) SoCal Regional Prelims on Saturday, with the Cougars combining to qualify in 14 events at the upcoming SoCal Finals.
The COC women's team will send 13 individual student-athletes to compete in seven events. Likewise, the men's team will compete in seven events with a team of 12 student-athletes.
First place finishers for the Cougars included Marissa Kneisel's mark of 5.49m in the long jump and Kaitlyn Matthews' leap of 1.56m in the high jump.
Also qualifying in a field event was freshman Dana Bowers, who threw a distance of 10.68 to place fifth in the javelin. Jada Selexman will also head to the regional finals after placing ninth in the 400h with a time of 1:09.40.
Selexman is also a member of COC's 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams, which both qualified the the championship event. The 4x100m team of Kneisel, Tayler Stiverson, Tisian Nealy and Selexman took eighth at 49.96.
Meanwhile, the 4x400m squad of Selexman, Stiverson, Di'ani Ellis and Nealy placed sixth with a time of 4:05.47
In an event COC continues to dominate, seven runners qualified in the 3,000m steeplechase, including Alexandra Whitman (second place,12:28.42), Jessica Ruiz (fifth place, 12:21.64), Lizeth Flores (sixth place, 12:30.35), Amanda De Jesus (seventh place, 12:30.85) Sandra Garcia (10th place, 12:36.16) and Chelsea Wells (12th place, 12:43.38).
In addition, Whitman qualified for the state championships by placing fifth in the 10,000m finals with a time of 40:20.03.
On the men's side, Jason Hillquist also qualified in the 3,000m steeplechase with a third place time of 9:52.72. Continuing in the distance events, Joel Estrada and Arnold Bautista both qualified in the 1,500m event.
COC will also be sending its two relay teams to the regional finals. The 4x100 squad of Jonathan Choi, Jaeton Williams, Cole Mears and James Berkley combined to post a time of 42.80 to take sixth in that event.
In the 4x400m relay the team of Randle Williams, Jordan Neely, James De Mello and Robert Brennan clocked a 3:18.15 to place fourth.
In the field, Mears took third in the javelin with a throw of 51.99m, and Diontre Harris placed 12th in the discuss at 42.55m.
The 2016 CCCAA SoCal Regional Finals will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 14.