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Track and Field Get in SoCal Preliminaries
By Beverlee Cooke & Stephanie Yee
Corsair Staff
Writer
May 7, 2008
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Stephanie Yee /Corsair |
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Santa Monica College Men's Track and Field athlete Eric White during the pole vault competition at the Southern California Championship Preliminaries . |
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“Race day I’m just nervous, till I get on the blocks, and then the sound of the gun…” said Jose Reyes.
“When you get started the nervousness just goes away and you run your race.”
On a windy but bearable Tuesday, the track team was preparing for this weekend’s meet at the Southern California Regionals, after victories at the SoCal preliminaries track meet Saturday, May 3.
“I think it was a big success, most of the people we took qualified to the final which was the goal,” said Larry Silva, SMC Track Coach.
Tyler Grady “improved five feet in the discus throw —that was his personal best performance,” said Silva.
“Reyes, who also did personal best performance has the second fastest time going into the finals for the 400-meter hurdles.”
Donovan Chin excelled in long jump with the distance of 22’3” and Eric White also excelled in the Pole Vault with the height of 14’7”.
Kasey Perkins qualified in the 5000m, by running on Apr 26; he wasn’t at Bakersfield, but he will be there next week.
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“We have five men that qualified to the finals,” said Silva. “Anybody that finished in the top nine in each event, qualified for the final and they get to compete for the championships. Now this weekend, the top six at each event will qualify for the state championships at Cerritos College.”
Angelica De Lara was the only female to make it. She ran and qualified for the 1500-meter, with a speedy time of 5:11:38.
De Lara will be running in the SoCal competition this weekend. “If she finishes in the top six she will qualify for the states championships, if she doesn’t win, that will be the end of her season,” said Silva.
During competition, Grady’s discus grazed a passing female runner. They say the disc is over 4 pounds, with the projectile flying and it’s probably a lot heavier. “It would have ruined his day and competition if anything bad happened to the runner,” said Grady.
SMC is still on the map for track and field and with beautiful results.
Reyes has only been training at SMC for a year and a half. With an amazing time of 54.15 seconds he won first place in the second heat.
“It’s a little difficult, but coach Silva and Bayano Kamani give me the endurance,” said Reyes. “I wanna get first place though.”
Coach Bayano has been training Reyes more this year than last. “Reyes is doing exceptionally well, has a natural strength, the second half of his race is really good, he’s consistent, he listens to his coaches and he learns really fast,” said Bayano. “ He’s everything a coach would want in an athlete, he works hard, and you can tell he wants to be a champion, it’s the look in his eyes.”
SMC’s track team is ready for this weekend and all seem to have a positive attitude while preparing and getting sweaty on the field.
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