ELAC men’s T&F move to season’s end
NORWALK, CA — The East Los Angeles College Huskies men’s track and field team competed four days during Spring Break and produced results that resulted in higher seeding’s for their final meet, the South Coast Conference Prelims.
The Prelims will be Tuesday, April 26 at Cerritos College beginning at 1 p.m. for ELAC. Huskies that have top finishes will move on to the SCC Championships later that week, to be determined.
In the two-day Cerritos Invitational on April 8-9 at Cerritos College with a preliminary round the first day and a finals round the second, sophomore Cristian Flores (Bell Gardens HS) placed fourth among community college men in the 3,000-meter steeplechase finals.
Flores earned a fourth-seed in the SCC Championships.
Sophomore Cesar Santiesteban (Cathedral HS) was in seventh place after the penultimate event of the CCCAA Southern Regional Decathlon Championships, April 5-6 also at Cerritos, then scratched himself from the final event, 1500-meter run.
Instead of becoming ELAC’s top decathlete in the last 20 years, Santiesteban received a disqualification from the SoCal decathlon finals for his scratch. ELAC assistant coaches explained to Santiesteban that he needed to participate in the event evened if he just jogged. He had five personal records in the decathlon, not recognized because of the scratch.
Santiesteban, however, has the sixth-best throws in both the shot put and javelin in Southern California and seeded as a state-finalist candidate in both events. In the SCC finals, he is the top seed in the shot put, third-seed in the javelin and eight seed in the discus.
Freshmen Kyle Hua and Jonathan Paredes (both of Alhambra HS) are the SCC 12th and 14th seeds, respectively. They did not compete at the Cerritos Invitational.
In the 100-meter dash prelims, freshman Shiloh Jordan (Maryland New Town HS) placed fifth in heat No. 5 in the prelims edged at the finish line by San Diego Mesa sophomore Stephen Adegoke by 1/100’s of a second, 11.87 seconds to 11.86.
ELAC freshman Joshua Palmer (Baltimore Randallstown HS) placed sixth in the same heat with a time of 12.00 seconds. Palmer placed seventh in the fifth heat of the 200-meter dash.
In the middle races during the Invitational prelims, Flores placed first in the second heat of the 800-meter run, sixth overall, with a personal record, which is the 11th-fastest time among in Southern California. Flores is the fourth seed in the event at the SCC finals.
Freshman Antonio Chamu (Los Angeles River School) placed 18th in the steeplechase finals. He is the 18th-seed in the event at the SCC prelims. Teammate Augustin Arias (Montebello HS) is the 17th seed.
Arias won the 1500-meter run prelims third heat and placed 15th overall out of 23 men. He kept pace with Cerritos sophomore Marco Zaragoza then sprinted ahead at the finish line and won 4:40.30 to 4:41.58.
“He accomplished an excellent finish for the win, something he’s worked hard on,” said ELAC Head Coach Louis Ramirez. “He is peaking at the end of the season, something the entire team works on.”
Sophomore Justin Flores (Alhambra HS) placed eighth overall in the event with a time of 4:23.54. Freshman Anthony Jovel (Bell Gardens HS) placed ninth in the second heat in 4:49.36.
Fernando Jauregui (Hollywood HS) placed 15th in the prelim’s 5,000-meter run, which electrified the ELAC contingent to drown out the rest of stadium noise. He picked up his pace in the final two laps; ran a 200-meter sprint and surpassed higher-seeded Pasadena City College’s Alexis Arevalo by 10 seconds at the finish line.
submitted by Tadzio Garcia