Destiny Lopez paces GCC qualifiers in So. Cal Track and Field Prelims May 5

The GCC track and field team competed at the Southern California Regional Preliminaries this past Friday at San Diego Mesa College. On the track, Julius Largaespada competed in both the 800m and 1500m preliminaries, qualifying for the finals in both. He took 7th place in the 800m with a time of 1:55.78 and 4th in the 1500m with a time of 4:00.95. Ezequiel Soto finished in 20th place in the 3000m steeplechase with a time of 10:39.06, falling short of the finals. In the 400m, Renee Cedeno also fell short of qualifying for the finals with a 24th place finish and a time of 51.16. In the women's 1500m, Destiny Lopez took 1st place with a time of 4:41.13 to qualify for the finals next week where she will also compete in the 5000m finals. The hammer and javelin were both prelims and finals this week. In the hammer throw, Kalyn Guerra and Lincoln Guerrero both had their seasons come to an end with 19th and 14th place finishes, respectively. Kevin Gomez had a season best with a 47.11m throw to finish in 4th place and punch his ticket to the California State Championship meet in Modesto. In the women's javelin, Vanessa Portillo had a personal best throw of 36.57m to take 2nd place and also qualify for the state meet in two weeks. The SoCal Regional Finals will conclude next Friday in San Diego.