Canyons Stays Strong at WSC North Meet

By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

SAN LUIS OBISPO — College of the Canyons student-athletes posted a number of top performances, including Zeniah Ellsworth's two first-place finishes, during the Western State Conference (WSC) North Meet hosted by Cuesta College on Feb. 23.

Ellsworth won the 200m with a time of 26.43 to best runner-up Brooklyn Herron (26.68) of Bakersfield College. 

Later in the meet it was Ellsworth running to victory in the 400m event after clocking a time of 1:01.43. That result was nearly a full second faster than second-place Emily Carpenter of Allan Hancock College.

In the distance events it was Katelyn Catu running to an eighth-place result in the 800m (2:36.78) with Kaiya Cortinas close behind in ninth (2:38.82). Catu also finished seventh in the 1500m (5:07.05) with Cortinas in ninth (5:26.73).

The Lady Cougars finished fifth in the meet's team standings.

On the men's side Jerome Hughes posted the top individual result for the Cougars by finishing runner-up in the 400m event with a time of 50.58. Later in the meet Hughes was clocked at 23.35 in the 200m to finish third in the field of more than 20.

Hughes was also part of the 4x100 relay team that included Andre Bray, Da'Marrie Smith and Alex Megas which finished fourth at a time of 44.42.

Smith also had a big day taking fourth in the 200m at 23.36 and fifth in the 100m at 11.37.

Canyons earned points in distance events behind Sam Regez and Cesar Tobar. Regez ran to fourth in both the 1500m (4:12.41) and 3000m (9:14.80). Tobar was clocked at 2:07.68 to finish fifth in the 800m.

Damon Barkus found success in both the long jump and triple jump events. The freshman logged a mark of 6.10m/20' 0.25" good for fourth in the long jump. He later leapt a distance of 12.32m/40' 5" to take third in the triple jump, ahead of Bray's mark of 11.99m/39' 4" in fourth place.

Delamonte Barnes led the throwing team, taking third in the javelin at 37.60m/23' 4" and seventh in the shot put at 10.01m/32' 10.25". Travis Royal logged a mark of 35.13m/115' 3" to finish fourth in the javelin.

COC finished fifth in the men's team standings.

The Cougars will see a break from WSC competition with scheduled dates at the annual Ben Brown Invitational hosted by CSU, Fullerton March 8-9 and the University of Redlands Invite on March 15 next on the docket.

The WSC Inland meet is set for Friday, March 22 at Bakersfield College.

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 X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.