Orosco, Van Leersum, Goree claim WSC titles

Cameo Goree, a freshman from Fresno, captured the 200 WSC title in 22.67 and also qualified for the So Cal Prelims in the 100.
Cameo Goree, a freshman from Fresno, captured the 200 WSC title in 22.67 and also qualified for the So Cal Prelims in the 100.

      WSC Championships Results

On a cool day with plenty of wind, SBCC took home three WSC individual titles on Friday in the WSC Men's Track & Field Championships at Antelope Valley College.

Michael Orosco won the hammer throw with a 3-meter PR of 39.88. Bas van Leersum captured the 400 hurdles in 55.54 and Cameo Goree took the 200 in 22.67.

Orosco and Van Leersum were seeded No. 1 for the finals while Goree was No. 9. Goree also qualified for the Southern Cal Prelims in the 100 with a PR 10.92 (No. 9 all-time at SBCC) and was a member of the 4 x 100 relay team that qualified for So Cal.

Orosco, who qualified for So Cal in the discus last week, saved his best throw for last in the shot put, moving into the fifth qualifying spot with a throw of 11.86m. Phillip Skopnik, seeded 7th in the hammer throw, had a 6-meter PR to place third. He also had his best heave in the last round of the shot put (11.71m) to qualify for So Cals.

The top eight placers scored points and the top six qualified for next week's Southern California Prelims at Riverside City College.

SBCC finished fourth out of 10 teams with 95.5 points. Canyons won the WSC title with 145 points, followed by West LA (139) and Glendale (131.5).

Alex Heuchert placed third in the 1500 in 4:09.69 and Omar Padilla added a qualifier in the 5000 (4th, 16:48.37) to his 10,000 qualifying effort from last week. Martin Montes also qualified in the 5000m with a vicious kick in the final 100 meters.

Scott Santella qualified with his fifth in the high jump (1.82m) after already qualifying in the javelin. The men's 4 x 400m relay team of James Herb, Victor Sanchez, Zach Clark and Van Leersum also qualified in 3:25.11.

"The weather was not conducive to strong marks for most of the events," said coach Scott Fickerson. "Cool temperatures and extreme winds led to slow tactical distance races, strong headwinds for most sprint events and challenging conditions for the technically oriented high jump and triple jump.

"The team instead focused on competing hard against the other nine teams and scoring as many points as possible."