Competing against community colleges, as well as several four-year universities, the Cerritos College men's track and field team did well at the Beach Classic at Falcon Stadium on Saturday. The team excelled at distance races and field events, with sophomore Dionbrea Norris (Long Beach Millikan HS) winning a pair of field events with freshman Jonathan Villa (Long Beach Poly HS) capturing the 3000-meter steeplechase. Cerritos will now compete in a four-team meet at Mt. San Antonio College along with American River College and Sacramento City College on Friday, while part of the squad will travel to Cal State Fullerton on Friday and Saturday for the Ben Brown Invitational.

For Norris in the high jump, he edged freshman teammate Adam Aguirre (Cantwell HS) for first place by clearing a height of 2.02 meters. Aguirre finished in second place with a height of 1.92 meters, while freshman Lenin Dolmos (Downey HS) finished in seventh place at 1.87 meters. It was a leap of 7.28 meters in the long jump that beat out the other 27 competitors for Norris to win the event, with the second place distance of 7.19 meters turned in by Riverside College's Nicholas Felder.

In the 3000-meter steeplechase, Villa beat out his closest competition by 14 seconds, as his time of 10:09.06 was enough to win the race. Aguirre also won his flight in the javelin with a distance of 47.18 meters, which was the seventh best on the day.

In running events, freshman Jonathan Bazinet (California HS) finished in fourth place out of 72 entries in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:55.48, while sophomore DeShaunte Lewis (Long Beach Poly HS) was in sixth place at 3:57.51. Bazinet also came in fifth place in the 800 meters with a clocking of 1:55.21, while sophomore Adam Vega (La Serna HS/Whittier College) was a close sixth in a time of 1:55.89. Lewis also ran well and came in ninth place with a time of 1:56.55.

The Falcons entered five quartets in the 1600-meter relay, with the team of Jesus Morales (Huntington Park HS), Lewis, Bazinet and Vega turning in the fifth best time of 3:24.73, while Miguel Figueroa (Washington Prep HS), George Robinson (Washington Prep HS), Jalen Sanaval and Dolmos finished seventh in 3:25.17.

Photo by Daryl Peterson