With a chance to expose athletes to stronger meets in their respective events, the Cerritos College men's track and field team split their squad over the weekend. The runners competed in the Cal State Northridge Invitational against a large group of community college and four-year universities, while the throwers had the same experience at the Santa Barbara Invitational. The Falcons will now compete in the Pasadena Games this weekend.

Complete Northridge Invitational results - http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/29226.html

At the Cal State Northridge Invitational, the quartet of freshman Jonathan Bazinet (California HS), sophomores Adam Vega (La Serna HS)/Whittier College) and Munir Kahssay (Western HS), along with Paul Mora comprised four of the top six finishers in the 1500 meters. Bazinet won the event with a personal best time of 3:54.15, which put him in fourth place on the school's top five list, while Vega improved on his school's fifth best time of 3:56.69 to place third out of the 70 runners. Kahssay took fourth place in 4:02.30, while Mora's time of 4:03.49 put him in sixth place.

There were several other personal best times turned in, with freshman Miguel Figueroa (Washington Prep HS) placing ninth in the 400 meters at 49.26, while freshman Gabor Fusick (Western HS) registered a clocking of 49.75 to place 15th out of 56 runners. Freshman Jesus Morales (Huntington Park HS) saw his time of 1:55.94 earn him a sixth place finish in the 800 meters, with the 1600-meter relay team of Figueroa, Fusick, freshman Lenin Dolmos (Downey HS) and sophomore Dionbrea Norris (Long Beach Millikan HS) registering a season-best time of 3:20.32 to take eighth place. In the triple jump, freshman Ignacio Rodriguez took fourth place with a distance of 45' 5 1/4".

Complete Santa Barbara results - http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/28022.html

The squad at the Santa Barbara Invitation consisted only of field competitors and the Falcons performed very well. Freshman Adam Aguirre (Cantwell HS) won the high jump when he cleared a height of 1.98 meters, while his throw of 47.61 meters in the javelin earned him a fourth place finish.

Freshman Joe Leonard (El Rancho HS) also had a good day with his second place finish in the hammer (40.58 meters), while he came in fifth in the discus (40.46 meters) and sixth in the shot put with a distance of 11.88 meters. Freshman Kimson Do (Kennedy HS, Guam) place fifth in the hammer throw at 33.50 meters, while freshman Miguel Villacana (John Glenn HS) was seventh at 31.49 meters.

Photo by Daryl Peterson