Women's Track 3rd; Men 4th at WSC Coastal Meet

The Pirates' men's and women's track and field teams traveled to San Luis Obispo Friday for the annual Western State Conference Coastal competition, featuring teams from Ventura, West Los Angeles, Moorpark, Allan Hancock, Santa Barbara, and host, Cuesta. Tristan Griffith led the men's team with wins in the 100 and 200 meter races, and as part of two runner-up relays. Meanwhile, Alyssa Carrillo placed in four different throwing events for the Pirate women and Miranda Rodriguez scored in the 100 and 200 meter races and as part of two relays.

Griffin lead the way for the Pirate men winning the 100 meters, 200 meters (seventh-fastest in school history, a lifetime best, and a "B" state meet qualifier), and as a member of the second-place 4x100 relay (sixth-fastest and a "B" state qualifier), and 4x400 relay (fourth-fastest, and "B" state qualifier). Griffin also leads Southern California in the 400 meters and ranks no. 2 in the state. The rest of the relay quartets included Jason Mesa, Terrance Nunnery and Isaiah Batis on the 4x100, and Ryan Stevens, Batis, and Mesa on the 4x400.

Other Pirate men scoring in the meet included Alejandro Ambriz (fifth in the 1500 and sixth in the 1500 meters), Mesa (sixth in the 100 and third in the 200 meters), Nunnery (third in the Long Jump), Anthony Flores (fourth in the Hammer Throw), Daniel Alejandre (fifth in the Discus), and Steven Nolasco (fifth in the High and Long Jumps).

Moorpark won the men's team competition scoring 168 points, followed by West LA (136), Cuesta (74), Ventura (64), Santa Barbara (60), and Allan Hancock (50).

The Pirate women found their scoring punch from the running, jumping, and throwing events. Rodriguez scored in both the 100 and 200 meters while running legs on both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays, both teams placing third. Rodriguez, Alisa Houston, Dejahnae Brown and Aiyana Brown rounded out the third-place 4x100 relay, while Karen Reyes, Fabiola Gomez, Patricia Ramirez and Rodriguez pulled in the bronze medal on the 4x400 relay. Reyes (2nd 400 hurdles, 10th fastest), Brittany Cox (6th 100 hurdles and 5th 400 hurdles), and Avery Black (5th 100 hurdles) made up the sprint race scoring.

Marissa Gonzales was third in the 1500m and sixth in the 3000m while Gomez finished fourth in both the 800m and 1500m. Kenna Perez came in fifth in the 1500m and 3000m races. Ramirez was fifth in the 800m, and Macy Schmidt crossed the finish line fourth in the 3k.

In the jumps, Aiyana Brown placed sixth in the triple jump and tied for second in the high jump with her sister, Dejahnae as both sisters cleared a lifetime best of 5'0.25", achieving the state "B" standard and No. 8-ranked jump in VC history.

The women's throwers were just as productive as Carrillo (fifth Shot Put, fifth Discus, fourth Javelin, and second in the Hammer), Serenity Valoaga (third Shot Put, sixth Discus), Leslie Valoaga (third Discus, sixth Shot Put), and Krystal Tapia (sixth Hammer Throw) earned over a third of the team's points.

West Los Angeles took the women's team title with 187 points, followed by Moorpark (121), Ventura (100), Cuesta (64), Santa Barbara (49), and Allan Hancock (32). 

"We didn't score as well as I had hoped but we had 27 young people produce 57 minimum state qualifiers and that speaks volumes for how much this team has progressed since our first meet in February," said head coach Tony Veney.

The Pirates will travel to Moorpark College for an open meet on Friday April 7 in the hopes of qualifying a few more athletes for the WSC Championships in two weeks. Field events start at 11:00 am and the first running event is scheduled for 12:00 pm.