M. TRACK & FIELD: A VERY BUSY WEEK
It was a busy week for the men's track & field team as they competed in three separate events from Thursday to Saturday.
It was a busy week for the men's track & field team as they competed in three separate events from Thursday to Saturday.
On Thursday, FC hosted the OEC Decathlon Championship, and two of their own represented the college in their very first multi-event competition. Freshmen Javier Weatherspoon and Rudy Membrano were ready to put their training to test.
After the first couple events Membrano had posted two personal records to put him self in the top 3 of the 12 competing. Weatherspoon with his background in the throws made a big move during the 3rd event (shot put). After a so-so high jump and a solid 400 meters, the first day came to an end, and found Weatherspoon in 6th and Membrano in 11th, respectfully.
The 2nd day started with the 110 High Hurdles and both Hornets had decent efforts. Weatherspoon felt comfortable on day two, with discus and javelin both events he knew he could excel at. Weatherspoon won the discus with a throw of 125 feet 1 inch. In the 7th event, the pole vault both men, vaulted to new seasonal personal records and started moving up the results board. The javelin again saw Weatherspoon excel taking a 2nd place and scoring another 577 points and moving up to 5th place in the standings.
The final event is the 1500 meters, which after 9 events in 2 days, can seem like a marathon to these gladiators. That did not stop Rudy Membrano from taking the lead at start of the race and blowing away the field by 5 seconds. When all the dust settled, Javier Weatherspoon found himself an OEC All Conference athlete with a very solid 4th place finish, and Rudy Membrano placed 9th very respectfully.
Late Friday night the Hornets stepped on the track at Occidental College for the longest of track events. At the very competitive OXY Distance Carnival the 10,000 meters is the last event of the night. The race is 25 laps around the track, which has men and women running in the same race.
Brandon Velasco jumped on a solid pace and ran to a very impressive personal record of 33:15, placing 12th overall in a field of 60 runners. His 33:15 places him 4th in the state currently.
Kenny Veltre also competed, he ran a good race considering he had been sick a few days prior. He's looking forward to the next time he can compete in the 10k.
Then, Cal State Fullerton hosted the always-fast Ben Brown Invitational on Saturday March 15th.
The Hornets of Fullerton took a few men over there to give them a trail against some quality competition. Pablo Perez and Khald Takwa took on the 5th heat of the 800 meters. Perez took the lead with 400 meters to go, and held off a charging field breaking the 2 minute barrier running 1:59.93. Takwa running in his first race of the season, showed his strength and ran 2:06.31.
Jonathan Baek competed in the open 400 and ran a seasonal record of 53.94 taking 4th place in his heat respectfully.
Freshman Gavin Proctor came to Ben Brown wanting to challenge himself, having never run the 200 meters. In what proved to be a great event for the Brea HS grad, he ran a very respectful 23.28 for 2nd place in his race.
Up Next: The Riverside Open on March 21st at 10:00 am.
