ELAC women’s T&F ends season at SoCal

ANTELOPE VALLEY, CA — The season began with a roster of over a dozen women that competed in 13 events and ended with four of the six Huskies that overcame a season of injuries in the Southern California Track and Field Championships.

 Sophomore Viridiana Hernandez (South Gate High School), who competed in eight events this season, competed today in the SoCal Championship Finals.

 She placed 10th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase outsprinting higher-seeded athletes from College of the Canyons and Saddleback College in the final lap.

Hernandez defeated 13 women last week in the SoCal Championship Prelims to run in the finals today. She paced herself near the top pack and placed sixth in her Prelims heat.

Hernandez finished the year with three personal records, including the 5000-meter run. She was the fastest 5k runner on the team.

Sophomore Ruby Padilla (Montebello HS) was the only Husky that competed in two events in the Prelims, the 1500-meter and 800-meter runs. She finished the season with the sixth fastest time in the 1500 run among South Coast Conference women. It was her first season competing in the event.

Padilla competed in six events this season adding the 3,000-meter and 5,000 runs and two relay teams, the 4 x 800-meter and 4,000-meter distance relays. Two years ago, Padilla focused on sprints and ran for the Huskies in the 100, 200 and 400-meter dashes as well as the 800 run.

Sophomore Luz Badillo (Alhambra HS), who ran the fastest 3,000 run on the team, placed ninth in her SoCal Prelims steeplechase run heat by 2/100ths of a second. Badillo edged freshman Melissa Rosborough of Saddleback College in an exciting 50-meter sprint to the finish line.

Badillo kicked in her sprint with 75 meters remaining in the race. Although the crowd was aware and not Badillo, Rosborough’s sprint began with 100 meters left. She caught Badillo with 50 meters left and the two ran side-by-side until Badillo inched ahead at the finish line.

It was an exciting ending to Badillo’s two-year run on the track and field and cross country teams.

Sophomore Melissa Preciado (Bell Gardens HS) placed 13th in her steeplechase heat in the Prelims. She ran a personal record this year giving her a No. 5 seed in the SCC Championships, which she held to qualify for SoCal.

“The team did well from a season adversity with injuries and health issues, which included a car accident for one of our throwers,” said Head Coach Louis Ramirez.

Less than half of the team remained on the team mid-season.

“Each of them bounced back and had great results at the South Coast Conference Championships and four that qualified for SoCal,” said Ramirez.

submitted by Tadzio Garcia