Pirate men take second at OEC Invite
RIVERSIDE -- The Orange Coast College men's track and field team posted a solid second-place team finish at Friday's first Orange Empire Conference Invitational, hosted by Riverside City College.
Coast finished with 106 points and finished ahead of Saddleback (69), Fullerton (37), Golden West (29) and Santa Ana (23). The host Tigers topped the field with 307 points.
The Pirates performed well in several events, including the 5,000-meter run, where OCC sophomore Zachary Dignan dominated the field and won the race with a time of 18 minutes, 9.72 seconds, over a minute faster than runner-up Matthew Worrall of Fullerton (19:19.5).
In the high jump, freshman Ian Koontz cleared 5-feet, 10 3/4 inches on his second attempt to take the top spot for the Pirates. RCC's Justin Reed also cleared that height, but needed three attempts to do it.
Standout pole vaulter Ryan Fegan took care of business by clearing 14-5 1/4, a full foot higher than RCC's Dustin Davis, who finished second with a jump of 13-5 1/4. Fegan also earned a third-place throw in the javelin with a distance of 137-7.
Triple jumper Bradley Bryant put everything together on his final jump of the afternoon, topping the field with a jump of 44-9 1/2, edging out RCC's Christian Gbla (44-7).
Other top-three performances for the Pirates include Timothy Weaver in the pole vault (third, 11-11 3/4), OCC's 4x400 relay of Justin Lind, Javier Molina, David Alvarez and Brandon Morse (third, 3:37.3), Tyler Young in the 110 hurdles (third, 16.14) and Myles Aguilar in the 800 (third, 2:02.85).
The Pirates will be back in action on Saturday at the Long Beach City Invitational, beginning at 10 a.m.
