Giovanna Z. Rinaldo
Staff Writer
The men’s and women’s track and field teams posted records of 1-3 at the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Multi-Dual 3 Saturday at Ortmayer Stadium.
Chapman, Cal Lutheran, Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps all competed at the meet.
“So far (the performances) have been really good,” head coach Pat Widolff said. “We had a lot of people quit at the start of the year. That was disappointing, but the new kids have kind of taken their place just as well.”
For the women, freshman Melissa Cerrillos stole the scene, winning the 3,000-meter run on the final stretch of the meet.
“My goal was to just do my best time and I knew who I was racing off of so I was just trying to stay with her and then outkick her at the end, so I did that,” Cerrillos said. “It feels really great to be ranked first in conference right now. It all came together.”
Cerrillos finished the race with a time of 11:34.62, a personal record.
In the 400-meter run, senior Kimmy Kabluyen came in second place with a time of 59.43.
Junior Tiahna Gillon came i second place for the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.36.
La Verne’s A team finished third in the women’s 4×100-meter and 4×400-meter relays, with times of 49.80 and 4:12.44.
In the field events, senior Mele Halalilo finished second in javelin throw with 38.76 meters, third in the discus throw with 39.73 meters, third in hammer throw with 41.30 meters and third in shot put with 11.98 meters.
Sophomore Catalina Lee Kim placed third in triple jump with 10.97 meters and in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.69, recording personal records in both.
Freshman Ebony Turner placed second in the high jump event with 1.52 meters.
Junior Taylor Schulze came second in the pole vault with 3.35 meters.
For the men, sophomore Joshua Francis came in first in the 400-meter race with 49.21 and in the 200-meter dash with 21.77.
Francis also placed first in the 4×100-meter and the 4×400-meter relays, with times of 41.49 and 3:20.19, respectively.
Freshman Marcelo Arcos finished sixth on his first time running the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
“It was hard, I’ve never done anything like that before. Also, I just came off an injury so I’m just trying everything out,” Arcos said.
He said he wants to improve on his hurdle jumps by the end of the season.
Senior Jacob Lopez was the winner of the triple jump, with a jump of 14.43 meters.
His mark is among the top 10 nationally in NCAA Division III.
Lopez also finished second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.50.
The performance earned him SCIAC Male Athlete of the Week and Leopard of the Week honors.
Lopez is also contending for a spot at the 2016 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Junior Andrew Carrasco took first in the hammer throw with 55.26 meters.
Junior Michael Burciaga-Ellis finished in second place in the javelin throw with 49.40 meters.
Sophomore T.J. Randall placed second in the shot put with 14.05 meters and junior Chris Gura followed in fourth place with 13.25 meters.
Gura also placed third in the discus throw with 41.00 meters.
“It’s always fun to run at home, in front of the home crowd and we’ve been performing at a high level so far,” assistant track and field coach Bryan George said. “I think overall we’ve been doing well in our progression toward the championship season, so I think we can do some pretty good things in a couple of weeks.”
The teams will be back in action at the UC San Diego Invitational Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.
Giovanna Z. Rinaldo can be reached at giovanna.zelonirinaldo@laverne.edu.
