McGrath and Park make waves at OEC meet

The Saddleback women's track & field team finished in third place at the opening Orange Empire Conference meet of the season on Friday at Riverside City College.  Dana McGrath and Alexis Park both won events in the middle-distance and distance races.

McGrath entered the season as one of the favorites in the state in the 800 meters after finishing second at the state finals in 2019.  So far, so good for McGrath after winning the event in a time of 2:24.40 at RCC.  She also pulled out a win in the 1,500 meters on Friday, crossing the finish line in 4:56.16 to win the event by just under 15 seconds.  Her time in the 1,500 meters shaved nearly three seconds off of her time three weeks earlier and is now just 7.5 seconds off of her all-time best.

Another with a win on Friday was Park, who dominated the field in the 5,000 meters.  Park crossed the line in 20:57.41 to win the event.  Finishing behind her in second place was Nayelli Hernandez (21:08.65) as the Gauchos finished 1-2 in the event.

Saddleback had a number of other top-5 performances on the day.  Alycia Turner finished fourth in the 200 meters (26.05) and fourth in the 400 meters (1:01.97) to pick up valuable team points.  Chloe Solomua was third in the 400-meter hurdles (1:13.16) and fifth in the 100-meter hurdles (17.32).  Janai Arteaga finished fourth in the discus (101'9") and fifth in the hammer (106'4").  Aja Tapusoa was fourth in the javelin (84'0").

Saddleback will be back in action next week at multiple events.  The decathlon/heptathlon athletes will compete at the OEC Heptathlon/Decathlon at Riverside City College on Wednesday and Thursday while the entire team will be in action at a meet at Cal State Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday.