Ballentine and Osorio Advance to CCCAA State Championship Meet

By Mari Kneisel/COC Sports Information

MOORPARK — College of the Canyons is sending two Cougars to the CCCAA State Championship meet after their respective performances at the Southern California Championships hosted by Moorpark College on Friday. 

Milca Osorio (5,000m/10,000m) and Matthew Ballentine (decathlon/javelin) will both move on to the CCCAA Track & Field State Championships being held May 20-21 at Mt. San Antonio College. 

Osorio ran her way to the state meet with a third-place time of 18.58.01 in the 5,000m. She had previously qualified for the state meet in the 10,000m at a time of 39:39.29, good for fifth place, at the SoCal Prelims event on May 6. Both times represented personal bests for the freshman. 

Ballentine threw for a mark of 53.14m / 174' 4" in the javelin to place fifth in Southern California and secure his entrance at the state meet.  

He will also be representing the Cougars in the decathlon after his fifth-place performance at the SoCal Hep/Dec Championships last month.

Layne Buck's sixth-place leap in the long jump (6.70m / 21' 11.75") left him as the event's first alternate at the state meet. 

Upcoming Schedule

The decathlon will open the State Championships at noon on Friday, May 20. Beginning with the 100m, events are scheduled to continue throughout the two-day meet. 

Ballentine will also compete in the javelin, with that event scheduled to begin at 6:45 p.m. on Friday. He's scheduled to also throw the following day as part of the decathlon events.

Osorio will compete in the 10,000m at 7 p.m. on Friday and continues with the 5,000m at 6:50 p.m. on Saturday, May 21.

A full schedule of events can be found here.

Live results and video are available at the CCCAA Track & Field State Championship site here.

Stay up to date on all this season's action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.