W. Track & Field: Falcons earn runner-up finish at state championships

For the second season in a row, the Cerritos College women's track and field team finished in second place at the 3C2A State Championships. The Falcons, who have won nine championships in their history, finished with 73 team points and only trailed South Coast Conference rival Mt. San Antonio College, who posted 102 team points. The state championships were held at Saddleback College.

Of the 15 entries at the state championships 13 of them scored for the Falcons, which included sophomore discus thrower Dimitra Vitogiannis (Downey HS), who won the state championship. Her distance of 44.79 meters, which came on her third of six throws, outdistanced the rest of the field. Her closest competition threw their best distance on their final throw, but it wasn't enough to pass Vitogiannis. She also competed in the hammer, but did not score any points for the team, although sophomore Milika Burdett (Cypress HS) did finish in fourth place with a toss of 47.91. Burdett also took sixth place in the shot put with a distance of 11.94 meters, which she recorded on her first throw.

Both relay teams competed at the state championships and recorded third and fourth place results. The 4x100-meter relay quartet of Jasmine Soto-Castro (Schurr HS), Elena Mack (El Camino Real Charter HS), Crystal Nguyen (Fountain Valley HS) and Alona Davis (Bellflower HS) were clocked in 47.17, which earned them a third place result. The same foursome ran the 4x400-meter relay and their time of 3:55.78 put them in fourth place, with the order being Mack, Davis, Nguyen and Soto-Castro.

Cerritos picked up more points in the sprints, thanks to Davis and Mack. Davis, who ran a leg of the 4x100-meter relay team in 2019 that set a school record at the time, posted a third place finish in the 200 meters (24.22) and came in fifth place in the 100 meters (11.88). As for Mack, she was in a tight race for the championship in the 400 meters, but had to settle for second place with a time of 55.80, as Kayla Thompson of Antelope Valley College pulled ahead on the final turn and posted a time of 55.54.

Andrea Villalta (Warren HS), who came into the state championships with the best throw in the javelin this season, had to settle for third place with her final throw of 38.70 meters. Sophomore Megan Feitz (Fountain Valley HS), who started running the 3000-meter steeplechase this season, capped off her year by coming in seventh place with a time of 11:55.06.

In the seven-event heptathlon, Zharia Taylor (Long Beach Poly HS/Southern Mississippi University) was able to supplant Jocelyn Pedretti of Modesto College for second place and finished with 4528 points. Trailing by 34 points heading into the final event, the 800 meters, Taylor recorded a time of 2:34.86, which earned her 633 points, while Pedretti finished the race in 2:28.07, which was only good for 595 points. Taylor recorded the most points in the high jump by clearing 1.63 meters (771 points), and earned the second most points in the long jump (663) by leaping 5.37 meters. Taylor also had the second best time in the 100-meter HH at 15.11, which netted her 827 points.

Individually, Taylor also competed in the high jump and finished in second place after clearing 1.65 meters. Both Taylor and Orange Coast College's Esmeray Demirbas cleared the height and advanced to 1.70 meters. Once both of them were unable to clear it after three tries, they reverted back to when they cleared 1.65 meters, where Demirbas did so on her second attempt, while Taylor needed all three tries, which put her in second place overall.

Below is a list of all Cerritos athletes that competed in the 3C2A State Championships.