Several Pirates heading to state!

MISSION VIEJO -- After Saturday's fifth-place team performance for the Orange Coast College women's track and field team at the Southern California Regional Finals, several Pirates have earned spots in the upcoming 3C2A State Track and Field Championships this weekend at the College of San Mateo.

Leading the way will be a pair of top-state qualifiers for the Pirates ... distance specialist Liberty Miller and standout thrower Abigail Gavrilovic.

Miller earned not one, but TWO Southern California gold medals for her performances on Saturday, taking first overall in the 1,500 and the 5,000.

In the 1,500 it was a two-woman race down the stretch between Miller and San Diego Mesa's Joelle Tonne. In the end, Miller took the gold with a top-qualifying time of 4 minutes, 49.16 seconds, ahead of Tonne's runner-up time of 4:50.68. 

Miller extracted a dash of revenge in the 5,000. After finishing second to Saddleback's Danna Ibarra Canales on OCC's turf, Miller went down to Saddleback College on Saturday and took home the gold in the 5,000 with a time of 19:32.68, just ahead of Mesa's Noble (19:34.15) and Ibarra Canales (19:34.36). She is seeded 7th in this event, behind a six-pack of Northern Calilfornia runners, led by Clovis College's Rhiannon Walker (18:21.23).

Much like Miller, OCC's Gavrilovic will have the honor as the top seed in the hammer throw after winning the SoCal Regional final with a gold-medal throw of 173-8 1/4. The Long Beach State-bound sophomore also earned a state spot in the discus (4th in SoCal, 135-2 1/2) and shot put (4th in SoCal, 39-9 3/4).

In the 400, Jasmin Trujillo gave Pasadena City College's Deniya Fields all she could handle and earned the silver with a state-qualifying time of 55.55, just behind Fields' time of 54.64.

Hurdler Ana Chupinsky is state bound after finishing fourth in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:06.73, while here sister, Sara, advanced to state as well after a 7th-place mark of 4-9 1/4 in the high jump. 

Pole vaulter Kiarah Palacio will be heading to state after finishing fifth at SoCal with a jump of 10-1 3/4.

In the heptathlon, Nikki Witana finished fifth with 3,428 points to qualify for state as well.

Other SoCal Regional finals performances from Saturday included OCC's 4x100 foursome of Witana, Trujillo, Chupinsky and Alyssa Bowman (6th, 48.9), Palacio in the javelin (7th, 102-1 1/4), Guerena in the 200 (8th, 25.63) and 100 (9th, 12.94), Trujillo in the 200 (9th, 27.74), Sara Chupinsky in the triple jump (8th, 34-4 1/2), OCC's 4x400 relay of Guerena, Trujillo, Chupinsky and Tala Dawood (8th, 4:08.36), Chupinsky in the triple jump (8th, 34-4 1/2), Luna Centeno in the 1,500 (8th, 5:08.21), Trujillo in the long jump (9th, 16-6 1/4) and Mariana Hernandez in the 10,000 (17th, 42.46.74).

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.