Dylan Roberts, Emily Stephenson and Alisha Greenlaw all posted marks good enough for them to advance to the SoCal Regional Finals next week in the preliminary meet held Saturday at Cerritos College. Roberts advanced in the long jump and triple jump, Stephenson in the long jump, and Greenlaw in the 100m hurdles.
Roberts started the day placing eighth in the men's long jump with a mark of 22'1". He did not perform close to his best in the event, but the mantra of survive and advance held true. In the triple jump, he waited until his final jump to post a lifetime best of 46'8", winning his flight and placing second overall, headed to the finals next week.
Greenlaw, who battled illness and a dislocated finger she suffered at the WSC finals, won her heat in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 14.86 seconds, only five hundreds of a second off of her school record set earlier this season. She was third overall heading into the SoCal finals.
Stephenson's best jump of the day in the triple jump, 33'6", placed her 10th overall, moving her on to the finals.
VC also had other non-qualifying performances at the SoCal prelims. Stephenson also competed in the long jump, finishing 15th with a leap of 15'8". Meanwhile, Greenlaw was 12th in the 100 meters at 12.84 seconds. Brittany McWaid competed in three throwing events, finishing 16th in the discus (105'1"), 20th in the javelin (87'7") and 23rd in the hammer throw (98'11").
Brigitte Kiesewetter missed advancing in the 1500m (5:05.94) but will run in next week's 5000m run final.
"This was good day for the jumps and hurdles," commented head coach, Tony Veney. "We thought Emily and Dylan would advance, and I was glad to see Alisha regain her early season form after illness noticeably slowed her times."
A sad note came when Marissa Tobin, a lock to move on in the pole vault, suffered a hamstring injury running a leg on the sprint relay.
"Marissa was unable to vault and I can't express my disappointment over this," said Veney. "She never shied away from doing everything she could to support the team in events that were not her primary effort."
The SoCal Regional Finals will be held Saturday May 9 at Cerritos, with the field events beginning at 11:00 am and the running events starting at 2:00 pm. At stake will be bids to the CCCAA State Track and Field Championships to be held May 15 and 16 in San Mateo.