By Jose Bivian and Ruben Hernandez
For the first time in East Los Angeles College’s history, the track and field team took home the gold in two steeplechase races on Saturday at the SoCal Track and Field Championships.
The Huskies won back-to-back first place steeplechase gold medals in for the first time in ELAC’s 68 year history, ELAC track and field Assistant Head Coach David Loera said.
“We devised a plan and they both followed our instructions an easily ran to victories,” he said.
Laura Aceves won the gold medal in the women’s steeplechase. She additionally won the 10,000-meter run and will be the favorite at state finals. Aceves added a silver medal to her two golds, with a second place finish in the 5,000-meter run at the SoCal finals. “I compete to win. I am happy with the results,” Aceves said.
Gonzalo Ceja won the men’s 3000 steeplechase run and was awarded a gold medal. He ran a lifetime best. “I don’t set myself up for failure, which is why I led most of the race. I looked back at the last 200 meters and saw I was alone in first place,” Ceja said.
Ceja’s times allowed him to qualify for the state finals in two events, the 10,000 run and steeplechase. However, he will only participate in the steeplechase event at state finals.
“It’s my best event and I want to win. Running a 10,000 run a day before the steeplechase lessens my chance in my best event,” said Ceja when explaining why he would not compete in both events.
The CCCAA Track and Field state championships are this Friday and Saturday and will be held at Mt. San Antonio College.
Laura Aceves will compete in the 10000 run in the state finals on Friday at 7pm. Ceja and Zaragoza will run in the 1000 at 7:45pm.
The steeplechase state finals will be on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. for the woman (Laura Aceves) and 3:50 p.m. for the men (Ceja and Zaragoza).
Daniel Zaragoza came in 15th place in the 5000 run, but qualifies for state finals because he had previously ran a good enough qualifying time earlier in the season.
On Friday the Track and Field team found out that, Jorge Romo, was ineligible to run at the SoCal finals. He ended his freshmen season as a SoCal finalist.
“Jorge Romo made it to the SoCal finals in the 400 meter hurdles as a freshmen. This is a difficult to accomplish for incoming freshman,” said Assistant Coach Loera.
Romo was also a SoCal finalist in the decathlon competition. This was his first time ever competing in a decathlon. In order to compete Romo had to learn five new events discus throw, shot put, pole vault, javelin, and the 1500 meter.
Host Riverside College won the men’s overall team competition. Mt. SAC and Cerritos College, both of the South Coast Conference, took second and third place respectively. ELAC tied for 15th place with Santa Monica with 15 points each.
In the women’s team competition ELAC finished in 11th place. They beat Bakersfield College who finished in 12th place by 4 points. Mt. SAC won the overall women’s team title with 122 points followed by Cerritos who had 112 points.
Final ELAC results at the SoCal Championships:
Men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase
Ceja, first place gold medal, personal record,
qualified for state finals
Women’s steeplechase
Laura Aceves, first place gold medal
qualified for state finals
Men’s 10,000-meter run
Ceja, sixth place, qualified for state
Zaragoza, eighth place
Chacon, 16thplace
Women’s 10,000 run
Laura Aceves, first place gold medal
qualified for state finals
Men’s 5,000-meter run
Zaragoza, 15th place
Ceja, 19th place
Women’s 5,000 run
Laura Aceves, second place silver medal
Men’s decathlon
Jorge Romo, 14th place
Men’s 100-meter dash decathlon
Jorge Romo, eighth place
Men’s long jump decathlon
Jorge Romo, sixth place
Men’s shot put decathlon
Jorge Romo, 15th place
Men’s high jump decathlon
Jorge Romo, sixth place
Men’s 400-meter dash decathlon
Jorge Romo, eighth place
Men’s 110-meter hurdles decathlon
Jorge Romo, 16th place
Men’s discus throw decathlon
Jorge Romo, 18th place
Men’s pole vault decathlon
Jorge Romo, 20th place
Men’s javelin throw decathlon
Jorge Romo, 13th place
Men’s 1500-meter run decathlon
Jorge Romo, seventh place
Men’s 400 hurdles
Jorge Romo, did not run