Gaucho men run 14th at state finals
The Saddleback men's track & field season came to a close on Saturday with a 14th place finish at the state finals at American River College. It was the 11th best finish of all time for the Gauchos.
Saddleback had a great start on Friday when it had three field athletes finish in the top-7 in the hammer throw. It concluded with a fourth place finish in the 400-meters by Nick Van Vliet and put the Gauchos in a tie with host American River for 14th place.
Van Vliet had a tremendous run, setting a personal-best by crossing the tape in 48.15. It was 0.05 seconds faster than when he ran a 48.20 at the Southern California Finals last weekend. In addition to finishing fourth, collecting hardware and earning five points for the team, Van Vliet had the added distinction of earning All-America status with the finish.
Saddleback had one other athlete earn points on Saturday when Constantine Kamarullah finished in seventh place in the shot put. Kamarullah had a throw of 15.16 meters on his third attempt of the day to earn two points for the team.
It was the 10th time in the past 15 years that Saddleback has finished in the top-15 in the state. The Gauchos' best finish of all time was a seventh place finish back in 2005.