Canyons Brings Home Three More Conference Titles

By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

VENTURA, Calif. — College of the Canyons concluded its run at the Western State Conference (WSC) Finals by bringing home three more individual conference titles and seeing a combined 20 student-athletes qualify to compete at the upcoming CCCAA Southern California Prelims.

COC sophomore Leo Lambert III ran to a time of 48.97 to win the WSC title in the 400m. 

Slade Cavallaro brought home a conference title in the 400h after turning in a time of 54.52.

Later in the meet, the team of Lambert, Cavallaro, Blake Beeler and Calel Christian clocked a time of 41.73 to win a conference title in the 4x100m.

The titles were the first for the men's program since the 2016 season, and brought the program's all-time total to 30.

The combination of Beeler, Cavallaro, Lambert and Christian also finished runner-up in the 4x400m with a time of 3:17.81. The team from West L.A. took first place at 3:17.79.

Steven Arrington was the only other top-three finisher for the Cougars' men's team with his time of 22.15 in the 200m.

COC's women's team posted five top-five finishes at Friday's event. Those results came in addition to Takaira Beard's conference title in the high jump, which was awarded at last week's WSC Prelims.

On Friday, Beard also placed third in the triple jump with a mark of 10.36m

Celine Whitman notched the other third-place finish for COC with a time of 12:18.31 in the 3,000m Steeplechase. 

Megan Carbajal's time of 1:10.93 was fast enough for fourth place in the 400h.

The 4x100m relay team of Sydni Jordan, Amber Gatewood, Alicia Hurst and Beard was a fourth-place finisher at 50.27. As was the 4x400m combination of Brianna Helsley, Gatewood, Jordan and Sophia Stephan at 4:06.28. 

In the team competition, Canyons took seventh place among the 10 men's squads while the women's team finished sixth in the field of 11.

Glendale (112) narrowly won the men's conference title over runner up West L.A. (110) and third place Cuesta College (105). Event host Ventura College (88.5) finished fourth followed by Bakersfield (82.5), Santa Monica (79), COC (74), Moorpark (69), Antelope Valley (30) and Santa Barbara City College (29).

West L.A. (152) took the women's team title, followed by Ventura (115) and Moorpark (94.5) in the first three spots. Cuesta (75.5), Santa Barbara (75), Canyons (73), Glendale (61), Bakersfield (54), Antelope Valley (26), Allan Hancock (22) and Santa Monica College (19) rounded out the field.

Canyons will be back in action at the CCCAA Southern California Prelims hosted by San Diego Mesa College on Saturday, May 5. The Cougars will be sending 20 athletes to compete in a combined 33 event spots.

A full list of COC event qualifiers is included here.

Stay up to date on all this season's action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

— Photo by Lindie Kane/COC Track & Field