Pirates finish second at OEC Meet
FULLERTON -- The Orange Coast College women's track and field team picked up a second-place team finish at the 2014 Orange Empire Conference championships, held at Fullerton College on Friday.
Riverside took home the OEC team title with 300 points, followed by the Pirates (184), Santiago Canyon (80), Saddleback (74.50), Fullerton (69), Golden West (62.50) and Santa Ana (21).
The top six from each event have qualified for the Southern California Prelims, which begin on May 3 at Riverside City College.
Along the way, several Pirates earned OEC titles for their standout performances on Friday.
In the 100-meter dash, OCC sophomore Nikki Puerner took home the gold with a winning time of 12.55, edging out teammate Briana Murray's 12.62. Also qualifying for SoCals was Gracen Alvarez, who finished fifth in the finals with a time of 13.43. Puerner also finished third in the triple jump with a mark of 37-feet, 7-3/4 inches.
Distance specialist Raeanna Cortez came home with a pair of top-three performances, winning the 1,500 with a time of 4:53.79 and placing third in the 800 with a time of 2:17.62. Joining Cortez to Riverside in the 1,500 will be teammates Guadalupe Cantoran (4th, 5:00.49) and Kristie Son (5th, 5:01.67).
Teammate Leanne Allen topped Cortez in the 800, winning the OEC title with a 2:11.88.
Cantaron and Son will have a busy day in the hot, Riverside sun as the Pirate duo also qualified for the 5,000. Cantaron finished fifth with a time of 18:42.16, while Son took sixth with a 19:23.41.
Joining Cantaron and Son in the 5,000 is sophomore Karen Silvas, who topped her teammates with a third-place time of 18:30.07.
Another busy day will be turned in by OCC's Sabrina Rowe, who won the conference title in the high jump (5-feet, 3-inches) and qualified third in the heptathlon with 3,788 points. She also cracked the top-six in the 100 hurdles (6th, 15.68) and the triple jump (2nd, 35-10).
Other top-six performances were turned in by Pirates' 400-meter relay (2nd, 4:01.09), Ashley Tupailesa in the discus (5th, 109-7), Morgan Johnson in the discus (6th, 108-9) and Brenda Perez in the 400 (6th, 1:03.33).
