Posted: Mar 15, 2022
The San Diego Mesa College men's and women's track and field team travelled to their first major competitions this season. On Friday and Saturday, the sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers, and throwers competed at the Ben Brown Invite at CSU Fullerton. On Saturday, the distance runners ran at the Occidental Distance Classic.
The Olympians competed against quality community college programs along with four-year universities including UCLA, CSU Fullerton, Army West Point, Cal Poly Pomona, Occidental College, and Santa Clara University. The weather was ideal and it provided the Olympians the opportunity to apply what the coaches have been teaching.
"The first couple of meets have been great opportunities for our athletes to get some experience and back into competition mode mentally and physically," states head coach Sean Ricketts. "It has been two years since most of our athletes have had an opportunity to compete due to the pandemic. This past weekend our athletes have already shown positive results with 15 of them hitting State A Marks, 3 state leaders in the Women's Pole Vault, Men's Javelin, Men's Steeplechase and 1 school record by Madison Rauch in the Pole Vault."
Highlights:
Madison Rauch - Pole Vault 3.67m 12'0.5" State A/#1 State/School Record
Kyle Wood - Javelin 56.77m 186'3" State A /#1 State/#5 Mesa All Time
Bryce Kueker – Steeplechase 9:17.78 State A, #1 State/Mesa #5 All Time
Kaela Estrada - Javelin 36.86m 120'11" State A /#3 State/#10 Mesa All Time
Moray Steward – 100m 10.58 State A\#5 State/#6 Mesa All Time
Jackson Podraza – High Jump 1.95m 6' 4¾" State A
Cesar Salazar – Discus 44.56m 146' 2" State A
David Millan – Steeplechase 9:44.61 State A, #3 State
Yahaira Zuniga – 5K 18:17.39 State A\Mesa #4 All Time
Esteban Magana – 5K 14:53.08 State A
Jonathan Kelly – 5K 15:03.16 State A
Jyden Schmid – 5K 15:11.84 State A
Jesus Villarreal – 5K 15:12.03 State A
Juan Rosales – 5K 15:13.25 State A
Christian Salt – 5K 15:17.02 State A
Both teams will be back in action on March 18th as they compete at the RCC Open.