MOORPARK TRACK AND FIELD STARTS SEASON ON THE RIGHT FOOT
The Moorpark Raiders had a great season opener at the Battle of the Regions hosted by Bakersfield College.
With 13 schools in attendance from both Northern and Southern California, the Raiders proved to be one of the best teams in the stadium. The Lady Raiders won three events and the men won two.
Sophomores Sophia Cortina and Ashley Brown both won an event and placed 2nd in another. Sophia won the 3000m (11:19) and took 2nd in the 1500m (5:00.26) while Ashley Brown threw the javelin 34.10m and pole vaulted 2.90m to place 1st and 2nd, respectively. Another sophomore, Victoria Vally won the high jump (1.42m).
Other highlights include two more strong performances in the javelin with Annie Doherty placing 2nd (31.79m) and Jaclyn Brown placing 5th with a toss of 30.88m. Cynthia Hurtado was 3rd in the discus (34.01m), Morgan Perlmuter 3rd in the pole vault (2.75m), Angelica Alcala 4th in the 3000m (11:30), Elizabeth Hsu 4th in the 400m (1:10) and the team of Smollen, Hsu, Rundini and Aynilian was 4th in the 4x400m relay (4:39).
For the men, Sophomore Reece Smith won the high jump (1.93m), placed 3rd in the javelin (47.26m) and placed 4th in the long jump (6.53m). Nicholas Balint took 4th in the 400m (52.59) while Peyton Shelton was 7th in the 100m (11.53). Connor Ahl was 6th in the 800m (2:02), Drake Nienow was 7th in the 1500m (4:11.92) and Robby Riggs was 4th in the 3K (9:09). Jack Franklin was 2nd in the 110m Hurdles (16.79). The biggest highlight of the evening was the men's javelin at the end of the meet. With the entire team and nearly every person in attendance cheering on, freshman, Anoop Khatra, he won the javelin with a state-leading throw of 60.61m (198'10"). His throw places him 5th on the Moorpark College All-Time Top 10 list. Anoop also placed 3rd in the shot put (14.26m).
The Raiders travel to West Los Angeles College next week to compete with the entire WSC Conference in the WSC Relays.