Cerritos College freshman decathlete Luis Gonzalez (Bellflower HS) just missed out on qualifying for the CCCAA State Championships when he came in seventh place at the SoCal Championships on Wednesday. Gonzalez amassed 5158 points and was 158 points behind sixth place finisher Keaton Gregus of Mt. San Antonio College. The top six finishers qualified for the state championships.

After the first day, Gonzalez was in fourth place with 3093 points and had five events remaining on the second day. He got off to a great start by amassing 818 points in the 110-meter hurdles with his time of 15.26. Gonzalez was still in good shape until the pole vault, where he was unable to clear a height and did not earn any points. His javelin throw of 32.13 meters garnered just 329 points and finished with a 1500 meter time of 5:28.63, which picked up 406 points.

The Falcons had a second entry in the championships, with freshman Jonathan Smiley (Valley Christian HS) coming in 11th place with 4558 points. He sat in eighth place after the first five events, but a pole vault of 2.92 meters and javelin throw of 32.56 meters netted him only a combined 731 points, which effectively eliminated him from contention.

Photos by Daryl Peterson