The men and women's Verntura College track and field teams competed at the Antelope Valley Spring Invitational, on a beautiful sunny afternoon for track on the Lancaster campus. Several Pirates distinguished themselves but the day was highlighted by the school record in the women's pole vault by sophomore Marissa Tobin. Tobin improved the mark she set last year from 10'6 to 10'8" with several close attempts at 11 feet. The effort moved her to the number one spot in the conference and a top five in the state.
Isabella Ironhill placed second in the pole vault and her seasonal best of 10' keeps her in the top eight of So Cal, the top six advance to the state championships in May. 100 meter hurdle school record holder, Alisha Greenlaw won her specialty for the second year in a row in this meet, and she did it in fine style winning handily while narrowly missing breaking her own school record. Her mark ranks her second in the conference, and top six in the state.
Alyssa Carrillo, who has been holding down the fort as the only woman throwing this year scored seasonal bests in the hammer and shot put. But it was her specialty, the discus throw where Carrillo showed some real improvement. Coming into Friday's meet, Carrillo held a personal best of 117' in the discus, and she left no doubt launching a 124'5" toss to move to second in the WSC and recording the eighth best mark in school history.
The women topped off the day as Aiza Sarmiento, Greenlaw, Tobin and Danielle Colvin placed third in the 4x100 relay with a time of 49.39. The time ranks sixth fastest all-time and cracked the top ten in the state.
Tristan Griffith shone the brightest for the men as he took control of the men's 400 meters from the start and lead a parade conference bests in 48.22. The time ranks him third in So Cal and fourth all-time VC.
"The meet today served as a dry run for the SoCal meet in May," commented head coach Tony Veney "and for the most part the team as a whole performed well in some pressure packed situations." The Pirates next meet involves a skip up the 101 for the Easter Relays hosted by Santa Barbara City College on Friday Mar. 25. Field events start at 11:00 am and the running events get started at 12:00 pm.