Gauchos finish third at OEC Finals
The Saddleback men's track & field team had a solid showing at the Orange Empire Conference Finals last weekend. The Gauchos finished third, and head to the SoCal Prelims with a head of steam.
Saddleback received solid performances from a number of athletes last week, including a great performance by thrower Patrick Geers. The freshman from Capistrano Valley picked up some valuable team points last week with a second place finish in the hammer and third place finish in the discus.
Geers threw the hammer 52.03 meters which was less than a meter behind Orange Coast's Austin Pollok. His toss of 43.12 in the discus was good enough for third…giving the Gauchos another valuable six team points.
Saddleback had as many as 10 personal bests at the meet, as many of the athletes qualified for the Southern California prelims this weekend. Ricardo Medina had bests in both the 800 meters (2:00.24) and 1,500 meters (4:01.96) in finishing 6th and 2nd respectively. Kyler Fisk had a personal best in the 10,000 meters (31:34.71) to finish 2nd and also finished 2nd in the 5,000 meters (15:30.56). Derek Herrera had a best time in the 5,000 meters (15:50.76) and also qualified in the 10,000 meters (33:33.19). Charles Michinock ran his best time of the year in the 400 hurdles (52.91) to finish 3rd. Aaron Chancellor had a personal best in the javelin (43.69 meters) to finish 6th. Matt Cabrera finished 6th in the triple jump with a best of 13.28 meters. Cory Pittman tied a best mark with a leap of 4.45 meters in the pole vault to finish 2nd. Both the 4x100 meter (43.35) and 4x400 meter (3:24.68) relay teams qualified with their best times of the year, finishing 4th and 5th respectively. Other qualifiers for the prelims included Travis Cotter in the hammer (5th), Michael Stoeffler in the steeple chase (3rd), Colin Scott in the high jump (2nd) and Trent Turner in the pole vault (5th).
Saddleback will travel to Antelope Valley College for the Southern California Prelim Meet on Saturday.