A trio of athletes from the VC women's track and field team produced impressive results at the UC Santa Barbara Invitational this week. Stina Johansson crushed the school record in the 3k steeplechase by nearly 47 seconds while Charlotte Allison and Cassandra O'Reilly both hit automatic qualifying marks for the Southern California Championships in the two-day, seven-event heptathlon.
Johansson (Sweden) set her mark of 11:07.96 on Friday, the third day of the invitational in Santa Barbara featuring NCAA Division I athletes from the Big West Conference. She won the race against two competitors from UC Santa Barbara by nearly seven seconds. Johansson is currently ranked first among California community college athletes in the event and third nationally among all college divisions, two-year and four-year. She is also ranked second in the CCCAA in the 1500m, first in the 3000m, and third in the 5000m.
Allison (La Reina) and O'Reilly (Rio Mesa) both hit automatic qualifying marks for the SoCal Championships in the heptathlon. The multi-event competition features the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and the 200m on the first day along with the long jump, javelin and 800m on day two.
Allison scored 3,420 points while O'Reilly scored 3,370, ranking them third and fourth in Southern California , respectively, this season. Their marks are also the eighth and ninth best scores in the Pirates' record books, respectively.
Allison posted personal bests in the 100m hurdles, shot put and the long jump over the two days while O'Reilly PR'd in the 100m hurdles, 200m, long jump and javelin. Allison is ranked No. 3 in SoCal in the long jump and No. 19 in the 100m hurdles while O'Reilly is ranked No. 10 in the hurdles and No. 19 in the javelin.
While the competition was the first for both athletes, it will not be their last as they qualified for the SoCal Multi-Event Championships April 5 and 6 at El Camino College.
The remainder of the Ventura College men's and women's track and field teams will compete Saturday March 12 at the Occidental Classic in Eagle Rock.