Van Vliet blazes to 400 win

The Saddleback men's track & field team opened Orange Empire Conference competition on Friday at Riverside City College and had a number of big performance.  Nick Van Vliet opened the season with a blazing time in the 400-meters.

Van Vliet opened the outdoor season with a time of 48.58 in the 400-meters, which was just 0.32 seconds off a personal-best set last season at the Orange Empire Conference Finals last spring.  His opening time was the third fastest time of the year in the state so far and was over a second faster than his closest competitor in the race.   Van Vliet then joined his teammates in winning the 4x400 relay with a time of 3:27.4, which ranks 12^th in the state so far.

Saddleback split the meet, defeating Golden West while falling to perennial power Riverside.  Here is a list of other top-5 performances on the day.

Austin Fischer, 100-meters, 3^rd (11.14)
Adrian Pioquinto, 100-meters 4^th (11.27)
Josh Suri, 200-meters, 5^th (23.11)
Josh Suri, 400-meters  4^th (50.84)
Ronen Skarsten, 1,500-meters, 4^th (4:08.01)
Brian Aguirre, 5,000-meters, 3^rd (16:17.19)
John Pease, 110-meter hurdles, 3^rd (17.65)
John Pease, 400-meter hurdles, 4^th (1:01.48)
Tommy McWilliams, high jump, 2^nd (1.73 meters)
Zach Coon, pole vault, 4^th (3.95 meters)
Constantine Kamarullah, shot put, 3^rd (14.41 meters)
Kristian Crabb, shot put, 4^th (13.94 meters)
Constantine Kamarullah, discus, 4^th (38.61 meters)
Christian Ydens, discus, 5^th (37.81 meters)
Eric McArthur, hammer, 2^nd (47.25 meters)
Christian Ydens, hammer, 3^rd (46.94 meters)
Luigi Gonzalez, hammer, 5^th (43.06 meters)
Eric McArthur, javelin, 4^th (42.95 meters)