The VC men's and women's track and field teams traveled to Bakersfield Friday to compete in the Western State Conference Prelims, with 10 events completing their championship finals. The Ventura women stand tied for fifth place following the competition with 17 points, chasing Canyons with 61 and Santa Barbara with 30. On the men's side, VC earned eight points, tying them for 10th place overall in the limited scoring. Alyssa Carrillo had the Pirates' best finish of the day with third place in the women's discus.
In most events, the top nine finishers advance to the conference finals to be held Friday April 28 at Moorpark. However, 10 events had their championship finals, including men's and women's 10k run, long jump, high jump, shot put and discus throw. The top eight finishers earn team points and the top six places can move on to the SoCal Regionals beginning May 6 at Cerritos.
For the Pirate women, Carillo had the top finish, a bronze medal in the discus. She also placed seventh in the shot put, just missing out on SoCal's. Leslie Valoaga made regionals with a sixth place throw in the discus and Serenity Valoaga was sixth in the shot put. Dejahnae Brown finished sixth in the high jump. Macy Schmidt came in ninth in the 10k run, and awaits a possible at-large selection to the regionals.
Five women also advanced to the WSC finals with top-nine marks. They include Aiyana Brown and Miranda Rodriguez in the 100m, Alisa Houston in the 400m, Karen Reyes in the 400m low hurdles, and Marissa Gonzales and Fabiola Gomez in the 1500m.
On the men's side, Terrance Nunnery was fourth in the long jump, punching his ticket to SoCal's, and Daniel Alejandre was fifth in the discus. Meanwhile Steven Nolasco was ninth in the high jump and David Torres 10th in the 10k, both awaiting a possible at-large berth to the regionals.
Tristan Griffith highlighted the men's finals qualifiers with the fastest qualifying time for both the 200m and 400m events. Other Pirate men qualifiers included Jason Mesa in the 100m, Francisco Erazo and Alejandro Ambriz in the 1500m, Max Carmona in the 400m, and Ryan Stevens in the 400m intermediate hurdles.
"Having the deepest conference (11 teams) in the south makes our prelims and finals a very difficult test for our young people," commented head track coach, Tony Veney. "We still can make a lot of noise with the 12 young people advancing to Moorpark, in addition to four relays, two jumping events, two throwing events, and the 5k providing us numerous opportunities to climb the leader board."
The field events at the WSC Championships at Moorpark will start at 12;00 pm, while the first track event is scheduled for 1:00 pm on Friday April 28.