Track & Field: Long Beach qualifies 12 for Southern California Regionals
Long Beach City College has qualified for 12 events for next week’s Southern California Championships after its performance at the South Coast Conference Finals at Compton College on Friday. The LBCC women qualified in six individual events and will send both relay teams while the Viking men qualified three individuals and one relay team for the regional preliminaries.
The Long Beach City College track & field team has qualified for 12 events for next week's Southern California Championships after its performance at the South Coast Conference Finals at Compton College on Friday. The LBCC women qualified in six individual events and will send both relay teams while the Viking men qualified three individuals and one relay team for the regional preliminaries.
The Long Beach women finished in eighth place with 41 points while the men were seventh with 19 points at the SCC Finals.
Leading the way for the Long Beach women is freshman Dakota Brown (pictured). She advanced in the triple jump, long jump, and is a member of both qualifying 4x100 and 4x400-meter relay teams.
At the SCC Finals, Brown finished third in the triple jump (11.01 meters/36-1 ½) and seventh in the long jump (5.13m/16-10).
In the 4x100 relay, Brown teamed with Ashley Craddock, Jessica Sheffield, and Tayvia Sloan to run 49.88 for fourth place. The 4x400 squad of Brown, Sheffield, Sloan, and Valerie Nettles finished in sixth place with a time of 4:11.30.
Craddock will see action in three events. Along with the 4x100, Craddock will represent LBCC in sprints in both the 100 and 200 meters. She ran 12.21 in the 100 to finish second and 25.21 in the 200 for third place at the conference finals.
Sloan will also compete in three events, including both relays and the 400-meter hurdles. Sloan was sixth in the event with a time of 1:09.24.
Rounding out the LBCC female qualifiers is Amalia Erazo in the 3000-meter steeplechase. She was second with a time of 13:15.07.
On the men's side, Chris Graham had the Vikings' best finish with a narrow second-place showing in the 110-meter high hurdles. Graham ran 14.69 and was just edged by Cerritos' Jarrod Lipscomb in first place at 14.62.
The 4x400-meter relay team of Kadeem Calhoun, Robert Kearney (pictured), Ariel Arguello, and Montez Hunter will also advance after its fifth-place finish with a time of 3:26.65.
Ceasar Perez took sixth place in the discus with a mark of 126-8 (38.61m) and Michael Delgado was eighth in the 1500 meters (4:11.02) to also both qualify.
The Southern California Regional Championships are set for May 5 (prelims) and 12 (finals) at San Diego Mesa College. Athletes from the regional meet will look to qualify for the CCCAA State Championship at Cerritos College on May 18-19.
Photos by Dean Lofgren