ELAC men’s track and field gets big win
LOS ANGELES, CA — The East Los Angeles College men's track and field team held its own against four-year university and also some top community college competition at the Occidental College Carnival Meet.
Sophomore Cesar Santiesteban (Cathedral High School) placed first in the shot put in dramatic style and Cristian Flores ran a personal record in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, fast enough to record a statewide top-10 time.
"Cesar Santiesteban won the Occidental College shot put on his last throw surpassing
Occidental College Senior Andrew Clarey," said ELAC Head Coach Louis Ramirez.
Santiesteban silenced the home crowd and remained undefeated in the event this season. He has the 10th-best throw in Southern California.
"Cristian Flores ran the seventh-best time in the state in the steeplechase with a time of nine minutes and 53 seconds," said Ramirez.
Flores is coming off an injury. He competed in his first steeplechase event this season and placed fifth among community college athletes. He finished behind defending CCCAA state champion Ethan Walker from College of the Canyons and three CCCAA 2015 SoCal/NorCal finalists.
Former ELAC All-American Gonzalo Ceja had the fastest time in the steeplechase among four-year university competition. Ceja competes for Cal State LA. He finished just behind Walker.
The ELAC 4 X 100-meter relay team placed third in its heat with a personal record. The Huskies outsprinted fourth place finisher Cal-Tech by 1.49 seconds.
The ELAC team consisted of freshmen Shiloh Jordan (Baltimore, MD Newton HS), Sherrod Crayton (Manual Arts HS), Joshua Palmer (Baltimore, Randallstown HS) and Santiesteban.
ELAC freshman Trey Atkins began his season with a long jump leap of 17 feet and 45 inches.
The 800-meter run had almost 100 competitors. Sophomores Justin Torres (Alhambra HS) and Fernando Jauregui (Hollywood HS) ran to their fastest results of the year in the event.
Torres finished in 2:04.03 and Jauregui ran a personal-best time of 2:22.0.
In the 1,500-meter run, 133 runners ran in several heats. Torres placed seventh in the seventh heat with a time of 4:29.39, good enough to outsprint sophomore David Puga of Cal State LA by less than a second.
ELAC freshmen Antonio Chamu (Los Angeles River School) and Anthony Jovel (Bell Gardens HS) competed in their first-ever 1,500 event.
Chamu ran 4:31.82 and finished just ahead of Whittier College freshman Auesten Hvidsten. Jovel ran 4:40.21, fast enough to outrun sophomore Chris Haack of Caltech.
ELAC sophomore Agustin Arias (Montebello HS) ran a personal record in the 1,500 in 4:51.21.
Arias turned the corner and sprinted the last 100 meters faster than freshman Zachary Solomon of Occidental College. Arias beat Solomon at the finish line by just over a second.
Results from other throwing events included, freshman Kyle Hua (Alhambra HS) with a personal best in the shot put of 35.99 feet, good enough for ninth place out of 26 men.
Santiesteban placed fourth in the discus while Hua took 16th place.
The Huskies next compete in the Ross & Sharon Irwin Collegiate Scoring Meet at Point Loma Nazarene University on Saturday, March 19, all day.
Live results will be available at http://finishedresults.com/LiveResults/
submitted by Tadzio Garcia