Pirates take fifth overall at SoCal Regionals

MISSION VIEJO -- The Orange Coast College men's track and field team earned a fifth-place team performance at the 2025 Southern California Regional Finals on Saturday at Saddleback College, with several Pirate athletes earning spots in this week's 3C2A State Meet.

The Pirates finished with 41 team points, trailing only Riverside (183), Mt. San Antonio (149), San Diego Mesa (125) and Cerritos (83) in the 23-team regional finals.

OCC thrower Sean Artist earned the bronze medal for his performance in the hammer throw with a mark of 159-feet, 1 1/4 inches with teammate Mark Lutke close behind in fourth place with a throw of 156-2, 1/4.

Both Artist and Lutke qualified for this weekend's 3C2A State Meet, which will take place on Friday and Saturday at the College of San Mateo. Lutke also earned a state bid in the shot put with a fifth-place regional throw of 46-8 1/4.

The Pirate throwing duo will have several OCC teammates joining them this weekend after they qualified for State in their events. 

Distance runner Caden Guardino finished sixth in the 10,000 meters with a time of 32:03.24 and 7th in the 1,500 (15:46.34) to earn state spots in both events.

Another double-qualifier for the Pirates is Brendan Clark, who finished 4th in the 400 with a time of 47.89 and 10th in the javelin (151-9 3/4).

Joining Clark in the javelin will be Deuce Frierson, who finished fifth at SoCal Regionals with an impressive throw of 172-3.

In the 4x400 relay, the OCC foursome of Frierson, Clark, Alan Martinez and Josiah Meggs will head up to CSM after finishing fourth overall with a time of 3:15.38.

Other top regional performances were turned in by Meggs in the 200 (5th, 21.71), Chance Callinan in the 3,000 steeplechase (9th, 10:08.9) and the 4x100 (Frierson, Clark, Meggs, Peter Le ... 6th, 41.99).

Complete results of the Southern California Regional Finals can be found HERE.

For more information on the 3C2A State Track and Field Championships, click HERE.