Several Pirates punch ticket to State Meet!

MOORPARK -- Several members of the Orange Coast College men's and women's track and field team have earned the trip to the State Meet after their performances as Friday's Southern California Regional Track and Field Championships, hosted by Moorpark College.

Fifteen different Pirates will make the trip up to Mt. San Antonio College for Friday and Saturday's California Community College Athletic Association State Meet and will compete in 10 different events. 

OCC's Kailey Frye will pull double duty at the State Meet after qualifying for both the triple jump and pole vault at Friday's Regional. In the triple jump, she nailed her second attempt and finished fourth overall with a jump of 36-feet, 6 1/4 inches. In the pole vault, Frye qualified sixth in the south by clearing 10-4. 

In a tight race, the men's 4x400 relay of Felix Fontaeus, Nicolas Felix, Maximus Knudson and Ryan Rivituso (and alternates Jeff Hass and Anthony Gibbs) edged out Cerritos at the wire to earn a third-place finish with a time of 3 minutes, 16.3 seconds, just two seconds off the pace set by Riverside (3:14.21) and runner-up Mt. SAC (3:14.64).

Rivituso will also compete for a state title in the 400 after finishing second overall with a time of 48.3. Only West L.A.'s Jordon Smith (47.73) clocked in with a faster time than Rivituso, who edged out Mt. SAC's Jesus Chavez (48.38) for the silver medal.

OCC distance standout, McKay Arvidson, overcame the Moorpark heat and a strong stable of runners to finish sixth in the 5,000 meter run with a time of 19:15.77.

In the high jump, Nicolette Gruber earned the silver medal by clearing 5'3 for the Pirates, edged out of the gold by Mt. SAC's Aaliyah Mendoza (5'5) on her final attempt.

Paul Domingue showed his stuff in the triple jump and earned the bronze medal with a jump of 47-11 1/4.

Joshua Mejorada took care of business in the javelin throw and earned the silver medal with a second-place mark of 185-0, nearly 8-feet farther than bronze medalist Matthew Mannino of Mt. SAC (177-4).

Shot putter Adrian Moreno found the right mark for State after earning a fifth-place mark of 47-6 1/2.

Earlier in the season, Tyler Young punched his ticket to state by finishing second overall in the decathlon with 5,967 points.

The complete schedule of events for this weekend's CCCAA State Meet can be found HERE.