West LA Sweeps Men’s and Women’s Track Titles
The West Los Angeles College Men's and Women's Track & Field programs swept the 2019 Western State Conference Track & Field Championship. For the men, it's their first conference title since 2012 and just their third overall. The women meanwhile continued to have a firm grip on the conference, as they won their 4th straight and 10th overall.
The West LA women won going away compiling a dominating 171 points. Cuesta College would be the next closest competition with 102.5 points, while Moorpark College edged Ventura College for third place by 1.5 points with 76.5 points on the weekend. The Wildcats would win 10 individual events including the ever important 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 Relays.
Freshman Aria Calhoun would pace the effort with golds in the 100M (12.01) and 200M (25.42) races. In the 100M Dash, the Wildcats earned three out of the top four spots, while also earning valuable points in the 200M Dash thanks to a silver from freshman Aja Hill (25.75). In the 800M Run and 10,000M it would be a pair of sophomores who led West LA to the finish line. Brenda Rosales-Coria and Cynthia Melendez would win those two races respectively with times of 2:14.09 and 19:58.05.
In the relays, Calhoun and Hill teamed up with Tania Cunningham and Ashlie Curenton to secure the win in the 4 x 100, finishing with a time of 47.26, three seconds faster than the second place finisher. In the 4 x 400, the Wildcats found even more separation when Hill, Rosales-Coria, Cunningham, and Andrea Gonzalez Macias combined for a time of 4:04.94, good enough for a gold by almost six seconds.
West LA would pick up three more wins in field events, when sophomore De'Chanelle Goynes tied for first in the High Jump with Santa Monica College Anyese Kirkland with a lead of 1.55M. Curenton would bring home the Long Jump gold (5.42M) and Goynes doubled-up on the gold with a win in the Triple Jump (11.46M)
On the men's side, things were a little tighter with the Wildcats tallying up 148 points and just holding off Moorpark College who had 138.5 points. The men nabbed five separate golds and used depth in a number of events to hold off the Raiders.
The first place finishes for West LA came in the distances, one relay, and one field event. Freshmen Juan Calvo and Jacob Skarr earned wins in the 800M (1:55.33) and 5,000M (15:36.59) Races. In the Steeplechase, sophomore Ariel Conde took home the gold with a time of 9:45.77, while Steven Ashby picked up 10 points with his win in the Long Jump (6.89M). In the end, one of the biggest races may have been the 4 x 100 where Darrian Boyd, John Chambers, Dre'von Macon, and Da'Vean Randall combined to win the gold with a time of 42.09 seconds.
