Canyons Track & Field Preps for CCCAA State Championships

The COC track & field program will participate in the CCCAA Track & Field State Championships this weekend after seeing a combined 11 student-athletes from the men's and women's teams qualify for 13 events during last week's SoCal Championships held at Cerritos College.

Leading the pack for Canyons was Ethan Walker who brought home a SoCal Championships in both the 10,000 m (31:23.15) and 3,000 m steeplechase (9:19.08). The freshman also placed fourth in the 5,000 m with a time of 15:04.57.

Also qualifying for the state championships were sophomore Rodrigo Ornelas who placed fourth (31:36.95) in the 10,000 m event and freshman Ashton Garcia who took seventh (3:56.76) in the 1,500 m event.

Walker, Ornelas and Garcia were also members of the college's 2014 CCCAA State Championship cross country team.

On the women's side, freshman Mikala Fairchild placed second in the 1,500 m (4:37.14) and third in the 5,000 m (18:02.78) to qualify for the state championships in both events.

Fellow freshman Samiyah Hawkins finished in third place in the discus with a mark of 39.39 m and will also be headed to the state meet. Freshman Zakora Merriweather took fifth place (1.56 m) in the high jump to earn her trip to the state championships.

Freshman Jada Selexman, who previously qualified for the state meet in the heptathlon, will also be competing in the 400m hurdles after placing seventh (1:06.55) in Southern California.

Selexman and Merriweather are also members of the college's 4 x 400 relay team that finished in fifth place (3:59.05). They will be joined by relay teammates Tisian Nealy and Ariana Cooper at the state meet.

Sophomore Dominique Dowell finished eighth (39:28.92) in the 10,000 m while freshman Amanda De Jesus broke her own school record to place sixth (11:54.98) in the 3,000 m steeplechase.

The 2015 CCCAA State Championships will be held May 15-16 at the College of San Mateo.