W. Track & Field: Several outstanding performances lead Falcons

Competing in the Occidental Invitational/Distance Carnival on Saturday, the Cerritos College women's track and field team won three events and had several A-Standard marks. Showing more and more improvement as the season progresses, the Falcons will split their squad next weekend and participate in the Hornet Invitational at Sacramento State University and Cal State Los Angeles Invitational.

Both relay teams did well, with the 4x400-meter team coming in first place with a time of 4:02.49. They consisted of Elena Mack (El Camino Real Charter HS), Zharia Taylor (Long Beach Poly HS/University of Southern Mississippi), Crystal Nguyen (Fountain Valley HS) and Jasmine Soto-Castro (Schurr HS) and finished more than two seconds ahead of second place Cal State Los Angeles. Checking in with a second place time of 48.67, the 4x100-meter relay team trailed only Pepperdine University. That foursome included Nguyen, Alona Davis (Bellflower HS), Mack and Soto-Castro. Both groups recorded A-Standard times.

The throws group also won a pair of events, with sophomore discus thrower Dimitra Vitogiannis (Downey HS) easily defeating the competition with her toss of 41.64 meters (136' 7"), which was a personal-best and an A-Standard mark. Emily Ortiz (Tustin HS) finished in fourth place with a distance of 35.26 meters (115' 8"). In the javelin, sophomore Andrea Villalta (Norwalk HS) also posted a personal-best distance, as she won the event with a throw of 38.33 meters (125' 9"), which was also an A-Standard mark.

In other throwing competitions, the duo of sophomores Milika Burdett (Cypress HS) and Dimitra Vitogiannis (Downey HS) finished in second place (41.54 meters) and third place (41.37 meters), respectively, with Vitogiannis recording a third place throw of 11.25 meters (36' 11") in the shot put. Sophomore Jessica McLennan (Warren HS) posted a fourth place distance of 10.78 meters.

Taylor also finished in second place in the long jump at 5.30 meters, which she posted on her first attempt, while Andrea Alvarado (Paramount HS) went 10.53 meters to finish second in the triple jump. That distance came on her final jump.

In running events, Davis recorded the second fastest time in the 100 meters at 12.23, with Megan Feitz (Fountain Valley HS) finishing in ninth place in the 3000-meter steeplechase in a time of 12:12.80.