Men’s Track and Field Wins Long Jump at Soka University

ALISO VIEJO, CA — The East Los Angeles College men’s track and field team won an event competing against four-year university competition in its season opener, the Indoor Qualifier, at the Soka University Track Complex.

All-American sophomore Joshua Taylor (Franklin High School) won the long jump event, which highlighted ELAC’s results. His finish of 6.57 meters is the top jump in the state. Taylor won All-American status at the 2015 CCCAA Track and Field State Championships with a third-place finish for ELAC in the triple jump. He also placed sixth in the long jump at that state meet.

At today’s non-scoring Indoor Qualifier, Taylor and the Huskies competed in a track & field facility designed in a ‘European-style set-up’ with the field events competition on the infield of the track.

The Huskies took first, fifth and sixth places in the long jump. Freshman Dijon Donaldson (Bellflower HS) placed fifth for the Huskies and Husky football standout freshman Garrison Harris (GA / Elbert County HS) placed sixth. Garrison is a wide receiver on the football team.

Stat Sheet

60-meter dash: Freshman Kirk Baril (Millbrae Mills HS) placed fifth out of 49 competitors. Sophomore Jamal Brinkley (Santiago HS) sped to 10th place.  Three freshman Huskies finished mid-pack, Hector Gutierrez (South East HS), Donaldson and Nicholas Hutson (Paramount HS). Hutson is a running back on the football team.

200-meter dash: Two Huskies placed in the Top Ten in the 43-man event. Baril took fifth edging freshman Riley King from Westmont College. Harris placed eighth outsprinting Vanguard freshman David Chavez 23.17 to 23.24. Huskies finishing in order were Taylor (27th place), Gutierrez, Donaldson and Hutson.

400-meter dash: Freshman Jakob Tilford (Colony HS), the lone Husky in this event, blasted his way to a second-place finish defeating the third-place finisher from Mt. SAC by more than a second. Tilford has one of the fastest times in the state.

600-meter run: Harris and freshman Steven Garcia (Montebello HS) placed fourth and fifth, respectively in their heat.

1,000-meter run: Three Huskies finished in a pack, one right after the other, even though they ran different heats—Garcia, freshman Joshua Cardenas (Schurr HS) and sophomore Nathan Rangel (Montebello HS).

1-Mile run: Two Huskies finished mid-pack in the 22-man race. Rangel took 10th and Cardenas placed 11th.

4 x 400-meter relay: Two Husky quartets competed in the 400 relay, which had the crowd on its feet. The ELAC team of Baril, Brinkley, Garcia, Tilford placed fourth out of 10 teams. The other Husky team was disqualified for a violation.

Next Up

The Huskies had some good results against four-year university competition. They now move on to face some of the toughest competition in Southern California at the Cerritos Open and Combined Events Meet at Cerritos College on February 24 beginning at 11 a.m.

Follow ELAC Athletics at http://athletics.elac.edu/landing/index or on Facebook at ELAC Huskies Athletics (@elachuskiesathletics). 

story submitted by Tadzio Garcia