Gauchos impress at SoCal Prelims

The Saddleback men's track & field team participated in the Southern California Prelims this past weekend at Cerritos College and had a number of tremendous performances.  The Gauchos won two of the prelim events, giving them a number of opportunities in the finals this weekend.

Saddleback has been a force in field events for a number of years and took center stage this past Saturday in the hammer throw.  The Gauchos finished 1-4-5 overall, giving them a great opportunity to gain a lot of team points this coming weekend at the finals.

Eric McArthur won the hammer with a throw of 51.66 meters, beating conference favorite Kyle Jenkins from Riverside by 1.71 meters.  The throw was just a hair shy of his personal-best the previous weekend at the Orange Empire Conference Championships and puts him in a good position to compete for the Southern California title. 

Saddleback had two more performers finish in the top-5 as Christian Ydens finished fourth and Luigi Gonzalez fifth.  Ydens had a throw of 49.99 meters while Gonzalez' best effort was a toss of 46.34 meters.

Saddleback had another winner in field events as Constantine Kamarullah won the shot put with a heave of 15.54 meters.  Kamarullah's best throw came on his final throw of the day and moved him past RCC's Jenkins at the prelims.  Kamarullah wasn't finished for the day as he also finished 13^th in the discus throw.

Joining the big field performers was sprinter Nick Van Vliet, who finished second in the 400 meters with a time of 48.20 seconds.  It was a personal-best for Van Vliet and the seventh fastest time in the state this season.  Van Vliet finished just 0.22 seconds off the paced set by Ventura's Tristan Griffith. 

Saddleback will compete again at the Southern California Finals at Cerritos College this Saturday.