By Tadzio Garcia
The track and field team came home with some individual community college statewide rankings while competing against top universities and colleges at the Long Beach State Classic on March 3.
Shawnta Barnes, won her 200-meter dash heat, edging USC’s Charity Bruce for third place overall out of 69 sprinters. Barnes is ranked No. 3 in this event for community colleges.
Barnes placed third in the javelin and is the No. 1-ranked thrower in the state. Raquel Acosta placed 16th out of 42 javelin athletes and owns the 25th best throw in the state.
Barnes is also ranked No. 3 in the 100-meter dash, No. 4 in the high jump, No. 7 in the 200-dash, No. 11 in the 100 hurdles and No. 23 in the long jump.
Giovani Leon placed 11th in the men’s javelin out of 50 in the Beach Classic and is the No. 26-ranked thrower in the state.
Other top-30 individual performance rankings for community colleges also include Darren Bragg, No. 13 in the long jump. Iris Abrego has the No. 30-ranked pole vault jump at 2.60 meters.
Darren Bragg placed 13th in the long jump at the Beach Classic while Armendariz Avanti placed 24th out of 62.
Adrian Gaytan posted the best results for the Huskies in the 800-meter run, at 2:07.84, placing 9th in his heat.
Other Husky long distance runners include Effrain Barrera, Daniel Zaragosa-Rincon, Carlos Segovia, Ricardo Navarro and Alejandro Collazo all of whom may add critical points in future dates against South Coast Conference competition.
Gaytan placed No. 6 in his heat in the 1500 run, followed by Zaragosa-Rincon, Guadalupe Baquero, Carlos Lopez and Rene Lopez.
Equally impressive, Segovia and Jesus Hurtado ran to their best results of the season in the 3000 steeplechase.
Leon placed first in this heat in the hammer throw, followed by Storm Couch (sixth), Davis Rangel (seventh), Daniel Romero (eighth), all of whom recorded their best throws of the year.
Bette Bosch placed 4th in her heat of the 100 hurdles at the Beach Classic, clocking in at 17.66 seconds. Bosch’s time was good enough for a No. 12 statewide ranking.
Huskies impressive start
The Huskies, opened the season at the South Coast Conference All-Comers at Mt. San Antonio College, on Feb. 10, followed by the Cerritos Invitational, Feb. 18.
Both meets included competition from conference rivals currently ranked in the top-10 Southern California track and field polls in Mt. San Antonio, Cerritos, LA Trade Tech and El Camino colleges.
The Huskies brought home top statewide results competing against these ranked teams. “We had good early season results and a great start to our season,” said head coach Louis Ramirez.
All-American Shawnta Barnes placed second in both the 100-meter run (12.25 seconds) and the javelin (109 feet, two inches), at Mt. SAC, which were good enough as “the second and fourth top results in the state at that time,” said coach Louis Ramirez.
On the men’s side at Mt. SAC, Bragg and Avanti’s long jumps, 22 feet 5 inches and 21’ 10” respectively, were the fourth and fifth best jumps in the state at that time, according to Ramirez.
Sprints
In the men’s 100-meter dash, Avanti posted his top time of the young season at 11.43 at Cerritos placing 7th out of 21 sprinters. Bragg ran 11.51 at both Cerritos and Mt. SAC, clocking in at second place in his heat at Mt. SAC and taking 10th place at Cerritos.
Barnes won the 100 dash at Cerritos, in 12:33, upsetting one of the favorites to win the state title in Vanessa Poole from Cerritos.
Hurdles
Bosch placed 11th out of 17 runners in the 100-meter hurdles at Cerritos in 17.67, which at the time was the sixth fastest time of South Coast Conference participants in this event. Bosch’s run would be good enough for a spot in the post season if this was the last meet of the season.
Middle, long distance runs
At Cerritos, Segovia and Hurtado, placed 4th and 6th in the 3,000 steeplechase. Also impressive was Zaragoza-Rincon’s 5,000-run, 11th place finish in 16:57.27 minutes. Rincon upset all three runners from Cerritos.
Carlos Lopez (10:34.00) beat teammate Segovia in the 3,000 run for 10thh place by a mere second faster.
Gloria Hernandez, Sara Lujan and Marcela Collazo competed in long distance runs for the East Los Angeles College women’s team.
Jumps, throws
Bragg and Avanti took home 4th and 7th place long jump honors at the Cerritos Invitational out of a field of twenty nine.
Barnes took third in the javelin throw at Cerritos with a toss of 34.25 meters. Acosta took seventh place while Lizzett Herrera placed 15th out of 23 throwers.
Abrego tied for 4th place (2.60 meters) in the pole vault at Cerritos while Jimmy Palencia placed 12th (3.05 meters) out of a field of eighteen.
Leon’s shot put toss of 46.58 meters was an impressive 5th place out of 28 throwers. Acosta’s shot put heave gave her 11th place.
Heptathlon
Barnes is one of three favorites to win the heptathlon at the state finals, which will be at Cerritos College this year long with Golden West’s Jaci Powell and Mt. SAC’s T’Keyah Gray.
Barnes placed fourth at last year’s state meet while Powell and Gray took first and second place, respectively.
Entering the final Heptathlon event last year at state, the 800-run, Barnes was holding onto second place behind Powell. Barnes placed 11th out of 12 women in the 800 and dropped to a fourth place finish overall.
Powell and Gray have competed this year in the 800-run almost topping their top times of last year. Barnes has lagged off in this event, failing to compete this year as of yet.