ELAC men’s T&F gets 20 spots in finals

LONG BEACH, CA — The East Los Angeles College Huskies men’s track and field team won its first medal during the two-day South Coast Conference Championships and qualified 20 spots in Friday’s finals.

With only two finals today during mostly prelims events, ELAC is in third place with 10 points, ahead of fourth place El Camino College, followed by Long Beach City & Pasadena City colleges.

Sophomore Cesar Santiesteban (Cathedral High School) placed second in the javelin finals with a personal best throw of 170.27 feet, 4 1/2 feet farther than his previous best.

Sophomore Cristian Flores (Bell Gardens HS) also scored for the Huskies with a seventh place finish in the 10,000-meter run finals. He will find out Friday if he qualifies for SoCal in the event. It was his first-ever 10,000 run and he finished in the top half of the competition.

Sophomore Fernando Jauregui (Hollywood HS) placed 13th in the event and electrified the ELAC contingent with a lifetime best finish. Teammate Augustin Arias (Montebello HS) placed 16th.

All other action today consisted of prelims events with the top qualifiers in each event moving on to the finals on Friday.

In the shotput, Santiesteban took first place. He will be the top-seed in the finals. 16th-seed freshman Jonathan Paredes (Alhambra HS) had a great day in the shot put and finished 13th. He missed the final round by just .02 of a meter but said he was pleased with his results.

Freshman Kyle Hua (Alhambra HS) finished the shot put in 14th place. Hua, the 21st-seed in the hammer, threw a personal best and finished in 14th place.

Santiesteban placed third in the discus. He threw a personal best in the according to the ELAC Throws Coach Lizette Herrera. “Cesar qualified in three events for the (SCC) finals,” said Herrera.

He will be the third seed in the discus finals. 21st-seed Hua and 28th-seed Paredes finished in 19th and 22nd places in the discus, respectively, with some of their best throws of the season.

Flores, seeded to be a finalist in the 1,500-meter run, focused on long distance events instead. He is the fourth seed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase run.

Sophomore Justin Torres (Alhambra HS), the 1500 run 25th seed, qualified for the finals with a fourth place finish in his heat. He kept pace with the top pack the entire race and finished ahead of many higher seeds. Freshman Anthony Jovel (Bell Gardens HS) ran a personal best in the event.

In the sprints, freshmen Shiloh Jordan (Maryland New Town HS) and Joshua Palmer (Baltimore Randallstown HS) ended their season with two personal records each. This is a testimony to their dedication in training according to one of the ELAC coaches.

Jordan’s personal best times were in the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Palmer’s personal records were in the 200 and 400-meter dashes.

Freshman Arturo Martinez (Jefferson HS) also ran to a personal record in the 100-meter run.

Huskies that qualified to the SCC finals are, Santiesteban in four events, Flores (three events), Palmer (two), Jordan (two), Jovel (two), Torres (two), freshman Antonio Chamu (Los Angeles River School) in two events, Arias (one), Jauregui (one) and Martinez (one).

submitted by Tadzio Garcia