Distance runners lead the charge at prelims
The Saddleback men's track & field team had a solid weekend at the prelims in Lancaster this past weekend, with a number of athletes qualifying for the finals this weekend. Long distance, relays and throws will all be on display this weekend at the finals at Antelope Valley College.
Saddleback has been preparing and waiting for this opportunity all season and looks ready to leave a mark. The Gauchos had strong performances in six different events, with all the individuals qualifying for this weekend.
Miles Brubacher (pictured) had yet another good showing in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, finishing fifth overall at the prelims. The sophomore from El Toro High School was just 1.4 seconds out of third and less than six seconds off the lead pace in finishing in 9:54.10. More encouraging is that it wasn't even close to his season-best time, making for a potentially big showing in the finals.
In a similar situation is Ulysses Orozco, who cruised to a fourth place finish in the 10,000 meters. Orozco (El Toro HS) is just starting to get back into shape after missing the middle part of the season and ran the race in 32:28.88. He shaved 28 seconds off of his time from two weeks earlier at the OEC Finals, but is still a minute of his personal-best time a year ago when he finished fourth at the Southern California Finals.
Ronen Skarsten will also represent the distance runners in the 1,500 meters after finishing 11th on Saturday. The freshman from Tesoro High School finished in 4:10.51, which was less than seven seconds off the lead pace. Skarsten ran nearly five seconds faster at Santa Ana in late March and if he can get back to that number in the finals this weekend could qualify for the state meet in two weeks.
The throws will be represented by Luigi Gonzalez, who finished fourth in the hammer throw. Gonzalez is a freshman from Estancia High School and had a personal-best toss of 47.11 meters to qualify for the finals.
Saddleback has never been known to produce a lot of great relay teams, but that could be changing in 2016. Both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relay teams had big performances to qualify for the finals. The 4 x 100 team finished in seventh place with a time of 42.87 while the 4 x 400 team was eighth with a time of 3:20.64.
Saddleback will compete again at the Southern California Regional Finals this weekend at Antelope Valley College.