Howe's big day leads Pirates to win Coast Classic
COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College women's track and field team took on some of the top teams in the state and walked away victorious at the 7th Annual Coast Classic on Friday.
Coast hosted nine other schools and came out on top with 120 points. Santa Barbara City College took second with 88 points, followed by Vanguard University (86), El Camino (83) and Cuyamaca (80).
Standout jumper Sabrina Howe took care of business for the Pirates, winning a pair of events -- the high jump (5-feet, 3 3/4 inches) and triple jump (36-2 1/4). Howe also finished second in the long jump (17-4 1/4), just edged out by El Camino's Araya Dixon (17-5).
In the distance races, the Pirates fared well, finishing 2-3 in the 1,500 and 2-3-4-5 in the 5,000. Raeanna Cortez placed runner-up in the 1,500 with a time of 4 minutes, 44.65 seconds, while Karen Silvas took third with a 4:44.67.
In the 5,000, Carmille Garcia placed second at 19:28.99, while teammates Nicole Barbour (19:31.6), Nisreen Rizk (19:50.37) and Silvas (19:50.53) were close behind.
Cortez was also strong in the 800, finishing third with the top community college time of 2:20.7, just two seconds behind a pair of Concordia University runners.
The Pirates' 1,600 relay team of Veronika Moralieva, September Rodriguez, Manasha Arellano and Leanne Allen earned a third-place time of 4:07.19.
Coast will return to action on Friday, April 19 at Santa Ana College in the Orange Empire Conference Prelims, which begin at 10 a.m.
