Pirates show depth in OEC opener

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The 2021 track and field season has begun and for the Orange Coast College Pirates, it was a solid opening meet as Coast men and women each came out on top against Golden West, Saddleback and Fullerton colleges.

On the women's side, Coast earned 93 points, followed by GWC (34), Saddleback (4) and Fullerton (1), while on the men's side, it was the Pirates (99), followed by Saddleback (23), GWC (13) and Fullerton (2).

One of the many highlights of the meet took place in the women's triple jump, where OCC's Kailey Frye topped the field by over two FEET with a jump of 36-feet, 6-1/2 inches. It not only was the top jump of the meet, but it was also the third-longest triple jump in Orange Coast College school history, according to head coach, Jennifer Williams. Frye also took the top spot in the pole vault with a jump of 8-feet, 1/4 inch.

It was a 1-2-3 finish for the Pirates in the women's 1,500 as the trio of Emily Olson (5:11.94), Mariana Martinez (5:13.46) and Bailey Pablo (5:28) led the way to the finish line.

In the women's 800, Katherine Ngo and Olson went 1-2 in the event with Ngo topping her Pirate teammate with a winning time of 2:28.83.

Sprinter Tiffany Ginger edged out GWC's Camryn LaVine in the 200 with a victorious time of 26.54.

In the head-to-head matchup with GWC in the women's 4x400, the quartet of Ngo, Olson, Whitney Johnson and Nicolette Gruber posted a 13-second victory over the Rustlers with a time of 4:30.26.

On the men's side, the OCC's 4x100 squad of A.J. Biggins, Dylan Plantinga, James Mazzeo and Connor West edged out the Rustlers by three seconds with a time of 43.81.

In the 1,500, it was all-OCC as Eric Galindo (4:21.49), German Ramos (4:28.77) and Kade Franco (4:29.78) went 1-2-3 to sweep all points.

Another pair of distance runners -- Cole Ridenour (16:24.04) and Brian Soriano-Guzman (17:18.62) finished 1-2 in the 5,000 with Ridenour nearly topping the entire field by a full minute. 

Another 1-2 finish took place in the long jump, where Devin Greene (21-3) and Isaiah Galloway (20-5 3/4) took the top spots for OCC. Galloway (42-1) got the better of Greene (41-3 3/4) in the triple jump in another 1-2 finish for the Pirates.

OCC's shot put tandem of Joshua Mejorado (39-8 1/4) and Asah Harris (37-3) took the top two spots for the Pirates. 

The Pirates will return to action at home on Friday at 10 a.m. as they host the same OEC schools in another conference meet.

Full results of Friday's meet can be found here.