Men go third at OEC Finals

The Saddleback men's track & field team finished third at the Orange Empire Conference Finals on Friday in Fullerton.  Trazler McGrath had a career-best score in winning the pole vault.

McGrath (pictured) went 4.28 meters on Friday to capture the OEC pole vault title.  It was 0.17 meters higher than his previous best at the Cal State Los Angeles Twilight Meet earlier in the season.  It also moved McGrath into the top-20 in the state and within an eyelash of the "B" qualifying standard.

Saddleback had nine others with top-5 performances at the OEC Finals on Friday.  The Bobcats had second place finishes from Santiago Sanchez, Brandon Pizano-Pintor and Alec Delgado. 

Sanchez finished second in the 1,500 meters when he crossed the finish line in 4:08.98.  Just behind him was Jaeden Cornejo (4:10.71) in fifth place in the race. 

Pizano-Pintor finished second in the 5,000 meters in a time of 15:34.25.  The time shaved nearly five seconds off of his previous-best time for the season.

Delgado was a second place finisher in the high jump with a leap of 1.95 meters.  The jump by Delgado achieved the state "A" standard for qualifying status and moved him into a tie for the seventh best jump in the state. 

Saddleback had three finishers in the top-5 in the triple jump when Dryden LaCour (12.53), Ja'Qorie Goodson (12.49) and James Begando (11.28) went 3-4-5. 

Marquis Colvin had a season-best time of 1:57.30 in the 800 meters to finish fourth overall.  Joseph Friske finished fifth in the 400 meters with a season-best time of 50.65.

In addition, the Bobcats were third in the 4x400 meter relay (3:29.70) and fourth in the 4x100 relay (44.52).  

Saddleback finished with 110 team points to finish third overall out of five teams present at the finals.

Saddleback will compete again at the SoCal Finals next week at San Diego Mesa College.