Morales wins a pair to lead Pirates at SoCal Regional Meet
RIVERSIDE -- Freshman Luis Morales has made a tremendous impact to men's track and field in his first year and his resume was further improved with a pair of wins at last weekend's Southern California Regional Meet, held at Riverside City College.
Overcoming the intense heat on the RCC track surface, Morales was the lone runner to finish under four minutes in the 1,500-meter finals, winning the Regional title with a time of 3 minutes, 59.47 seconds. Cerritos College's Francisco Ortiz finished second with a 4:01.51, while Falcon teammate Jonathan Bazinet (4:01.56) took third.
The fun continued for Morales as he captured the Regional title in the 5,000 with a time of 15:07.58. Teammate Brandon Ferguson finished second with a 15:18.97, while Lucio Ramirez took fifth overall with a 15:24.55. All three earned a spot at next week's California Community College Athletic Association State Meet on Friday and Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.
It will be a long, hot weekend for Ferguson and Ramirez, who also qualified for State in the 10,000. Ferguson finsihed second at Regionals with a time of 32:19.12, while Ramirez took third with a 32:21.79.
Another solid performance was turned in by all-around athlete Winston Lawson, who finished third in the decathlon with 6,733 points and also qualified for State in the high jump with a fifth-place mark of 6-feet, 9 1/4 inches.
