Anthony Eramya
Staff Writer
Four Leopards earned first place in their event, at the first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference meet at Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday.
Sophomore thrower Subdue Ezinwa was one of those Leopards.
“I got to make sure I stop being nervous then I have to fall through with the warmups that I already know,” Ezinwa said.
For discus, Ezinwa threw for 42.01 meters, his new personal record. The only other athlete that threw close to Ezinwa was a fellow Leopard, senior Matthew Pedroza, who threw for 41.85 meters.
Junior distance runner Matthew Salas dominated the 1,500-meter race, setting a personal best and NCAA Division III season high of 3:58.
“[The team] is doing pretty good. I am seeing some wins across the board,” Salas said.
Senior runner Christian Mora took sixth place in the 1,500-meter race behind Salas.
“I am pretty happy. I was only about a second off of my (personal record) and I took a couple years off of running.”
Freshman David Lara also had a standout performance, breaking his personal record in both discus and javelin.
For javelin, Lara threw just over 38 meters while throwing 26.25 meters in the discus.
“It looks like we have been doing pretty good so far our throws have been going very well so hopefully we take it all in throws,” Lara said.
A bright spot in the Leopards’ future, Lara makes sure to keep it simple in training.
“I try to listen to the coaches and listen to everyone in the weight room staff while also doing whatever it takes to get mentally prepared to just help my teammates out,” he said.
Coach Kevin Reid was quick to talk about the success that the Leopards were having over the course of the meet.
“You know, for just getting through the first few events of the meet I think we are performing well,” Reid said. “We had a lot of people throw out a lot of personal bests going against a lot of good competition so it has been a good day so far.”
The Leopards will be in action again Friday at the NCAA Indoor National Championships at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Anthony Eramya can be reached at anthony.eramya@laverne.edu.
