Gaucho men run 14th at state finals

The Saddleback men's track & field season came to a close on Saturday with a 14^th place finish at the state finals at American River College.  It was the 11^th best finish of all time for the Gauchos.

Saddleback had a great start on Friday when it had three field athletes finish in the top-7 in the hammer throw.  It concluded with a fourth place finish in the 400-meters by Nick Van Vliet and put the Gauchos in a tie with host American River for 14^th place. 

Van Vliet had a tremendous run, setting a personal-best by crossing the tape in 48.15.  It was 0.05 seconds faster than when he ran a 48.20 at the Southern California Finals last weekend.  In addition to finishing fourth, collecting hardware and earning five points for the team, Van Vliet had the added distinction of earning All-America status with the finish.

Saddleback had one other athlete earn points on Saturday when Constantine Kamarullah finished in seventh place in the shot put.  Kamarullah had a throw of 15.16 meters on his third attempt of the day to earn two points for the team. 

It was the 10^th time in the past 15 years that Saddleback has finished in the top-15 in the state.  The Gauchos' best finish of all time was a seventh place finish back in 2005.