Jolene Nacapuy
Assistant Sports Editor
The track and field teams hosted the La Verne Tri Meet Saturday at Ortmayer Stadium.
The men’s 4×100-meter relay team of junior Khayree Jones, junior James Francis, sophomore Robert Oshodin and senior Chancise Watkins came in first with a time 42.42 seconds.
Watkins also came in first for the men’s 100-meter and 200-meter dash with times of 11.03 and 21.53, respectively.
“It felt good to come in first, although I wish my times were a little faster,” Watkins said. “My times are ahead of those last year but it’s a work in progress.”
Oshodin came in second with a time of 22.61 in the 200-meter followed by Edward Sutton of Orange Coast with a time of 22.70.
Jones came in close in the men’s 400-meter dash with a time of 50.94 behind Golden West runner Kandrick Ragasa, who came in first with a time of 50.72.
“It was a good meet today,” Jones said. “It was really nice to meet new people and have new teams here.”
Sophomore Jacob Lopez won the men’s triple jump with 13.43m and came in fifth place for the 100-meter hurdle with 16.65.
The women’s 4×100-meter relay team of Ebony Williams, Tiahna Gillon, Tanesha Spencer and Nicole Crutchfield came in first with a time of 49.60
In the 4×400-meter relay, the team of Jasmin Gonzalez, Alexa Smith, Williams and Spencer came in first with a time of 4:06.50.
“The women did really well today,” sophomore runner Dominic Woods said. “The team looked strong and I think they can compete with any team with the conference.”
Williams also came in first in the women’s 100-meter and 200-meter, coming with times of 12.71 and 26.33, respectively.
Gillon and Crutchfield took second and third respectively, in the 100-meter with times of 12.71 and 12.94. Smith came in second in the 200-meter with a time of 26.56.
“The rain sucks because it’s pretty hard to run fast, especially in cold weather,” Watkins said. “But as a team, we did our best and really well.”
Despite the cold weather, wind and rain during the meet, La Verne also did well in the field events.
Junior Chris Gura came in first in the men’s discus with 47.53m and also came in third for shot put with 12.47m.
Senior Matt Rehder came in first for men’s javelin with 49.55m.
“Our field teams have been doing work and are always great so they’re going to kill it this year,” Woods said. “The throwers train extremely hard all the time and the pole vaulters too.”
In the women’s pole vault, senior Katie Yeager, juniors Taylor Bernhard and Taylor Schulze placed 1-2-3 with 3.50m, 3.35m and 3.20m.
Senior Lindsey Foster placed first in the women’s long jump with 5.28m.
Senior Deanna Doss came in first place in three events, throwing the shot put and discus for 10.73m and 34.82m, and 49.50m for the hammer throw.
Freshman Jaclyn Castleberry followed, coming in second in the shot put and discus event, throwing a 10.10m and the discus for 31.37m.
Junior Christiana Coughlin came in first in the women’s javelin with 32.26m.
The Leopards will compete in their first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference quad meet of the season on Saturday at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
“I look forward to beating Redlands and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps since they’re our rival schools,” Watkins said. “To give them their first loss of the season would show them that we’re in the running to win conference.”
Jolene Nacapuy can be reached at jolene.nacapuy@laverne.edu.
