The Glendale College track and field team displayed its talent in the Bryan Clay Invitational held at Azusa Pacific University Friday March 16, by posting solid performances throughout the meet. Even more impressive is the fact that Glendale competed with four-year schools and unattached throughout the nation.
Glendale was off to a running start from the beginning. The men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase featured 2009 All-American Jonathan Alpizar finishing second in 9:27.49 and Francisco Quijada was fifth with 9:34.67, a personal best time for the 2009 All-American as well. Alpizar and Quijada raced against athletes from schools like Utah Valley University, U.C. Riverside and North Dakota State University.
Slideshow Media Credit: Richard Kontas
As the sun began to shine on the track midday, so did Lady Vaquero Nina Moore. Moore, the 2009 state individual cross country champion, finished first in her section of the women’s 1,500-meter race in a personal best time of 4:40.02, with her teammates Karen Rosas in fifth place in the same race in a personal best time of 4:48.34 and Diana Sanchez in ninth place with a time of 5:01.26.
Despite being out of breath, Moore was definitely not out of smiles. Ecstatic about her win, she was struggling to catch her breath as she described her performance.
“I was totally confident coming into and even during the race,” Moore said. “Even though I haven’t raced against a lot of these girls, having raced on this same track made me feel confident about performing well in front of my parents and such a big crowd.”
Christopher Farmer, one of Glendale’s brightest prospects as a freshman, demonstrated his skills during the 110 and 400-meter hurdles. Farmer finished third in his section of the 110-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 15:09.
Farmer also finished second in the men’s 400-meter hurdles with his personal best time of 55:78. Although running best times for both the 110 and 400-meter hurdles, assistant coach Bryan Ramos sees Farmer improving even more in the Western Conference State preliminaries Saturday at Ventura College.
“Farmer ran very well and has been improving in every meet,” Ramos said. “He should definitely shoot for less than 15 seconds in the 110 hurdles and under 55 seconds in the 400 hurdles if he wants to win the races Saturday.”
Farmer helped his teammates James Jones, Neil Jones and Ricky Avila finish first in their section of the men’s 4 by 400 meter relay with a time of 3:27.88.
Glendale sprinter Samantha Bogatz performed well against a high caliber field by finishing second in her section of the women’s 100-meter dash in a season best time of 11.92 and she also finished fourth in her section of the 200-meters in a season best time of 24.47.
“Our goal in the Western State Conference preliminaries is to advance to the finals,” Ramos said. “We definitely have a chance to win the Western State Conference championship for both the men’s and women’s teams.”
Glendale College will compete in the Western State Conference preliminaries in Ventura on Friday at 1 p.m.
