Streak of South Coast Teams Winning State Women's Track and Field Titles Now At 8
For the eighth straight time going back to 2013, a South Coast Conference member team won the women's track and field state title. After two years of no state meets due to COVID-19, Mt. San Antonio won at its hosted 2022 CCCAA State Track and Field Championship held May 20-21.
The streak started with Cerritos winning in 2013, Mt. SAC in 2014, the Falcons again for three in a row 2015-2017, then the Mounties in 2018, Cerritos in 2019 and now Mt. SAC one more time. The SCC champion Mounties also accomplished the feat of winning both the women's and men's championships in the same year for the fifth time--the others in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2018. Since the first women's state meet in 1977, the SCC has 27 state champions.
Mt. SAC won with 115.5 points, outdistancing second-place Riverside (69) and third-place Saddleback (67). The Mounties had just one individual state champion in Delayshia Allen, who captured the 100 hurdles in a time of 14.55 seconds.
Mt. San Antonio had several silver medals including Kimberly Pena in both the 10,000 meters (37:35.10) and 5,000 (17:45.76), Claudia Vera in the 3,000 steeplechase (11:42.20), the 4x400 relay (4:00.99), and Kaitlyn Swenson in the pole vault (11-3.75). Key events for scoring that led to the state crown were 19 points gained in the steeplechase (#2,3,4 finishers), 16 in the 5,000 (#2,4,6 places), and 14 in the 10,000 (#2,#3).
Hannah Brown scored third in the 10,000 and fourth in the 5,000 while Aaliyah Mendoza used a 5-3 leap to take bronze in the high jump.
South Coast Conference Team Placings at State Meet: 1. Mt. San Antonio, 115, 8. Long Beach, 29, 12. Cerritos, 23, 18. El Camino, 18, 34. Pasadena, 3.5, 35. Compton, 3.
Long Beach City's Casey Davis was the only other state champion with a 41-10.5 foot throw to win the shot put title. El Camino's Yukina Hamachi (photo below by Ken McLin) won the silver in the hepthathlon with 4,400 points, not far behind champion Jolie Robinson of Saddleback with 4,651.
The most populated finish for SCC competitors occurred in the 100 hurdles with champion Allen followed by Long Beach's Radiance Lindsey in fourth (14.66), Jazzmine Davis of Cerritos in fifth (14.66), and Compton's Tia Spears in seventh (14.87). Another event with some SCC spice was the long jump as Cerritos' Isis Johnson (third, 18-7.75), Mt. SAC's Ahnyx Bush (fourth, 18-6), and Hamachi (fifth, 18-4.5) all scored in consecutive order.
Jada Turner, running for West Los Angeles because LA Harbor has no track and field program, placed third in the 800 meters in 2:18.76. Turner was an All-SCC South Division Tri-Player of the Year for Harbor in women's basketball.
Pasadena City had its first scoring points since the 2015 state meet, led by Bay Hollinger's sixth place in the high jump (4-11).
Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID