Pirates Men's & Women's Track Both Place Third at Cuesta

The Pirates' men's and women's track and field teams traveled the 101 freeway Friday to compete in the Western State Conference Coast Meet at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. Five Pirate individuals and one relay highlighted the day as Brieanna Tafoya, Olivia Burton, Cynthia Tuzak, Reuben Jacob, and David Lopez all took home individual first place honors. The men's 4x400 relay team of Isaiah Batis, Lopez, Jason Mesa, and Darren Houston took their third win of the season. Both teams finished third in the six-team competition.

West LA won the women's team title with 142 points followed by Cuesta (129), Ventura (107), Moorpark (79), Santa Barbara (50), and Allan Hancock (24). Moorpark took the men's title with 167 points, with West LA (151), Ventura (104), Cuesta (87), Santa Barbara (26), and Allan Hancock (12), rounding out the top six.

Tafoya brought home the gold in the 400m with a time of 59.48 while Burton won the 3000m in 10:49.95. Tuzak was victorious in the Discus with a toss of 119'5". Jacob claimed the shot put with a throw of 44'11.75", and Lopez ran 10.69 to claim gold in the 100 meters. Batis, Lopez, Mesa and Houston circled the track four times in 3:31.72 to bring home their third win of the season in the 4x100m relay.

Top three finishes for VC included Lopez (2nd, 200m), Kimora Pooler (2nd, shot put; 2nd, javelin), Darius Johnson (2nd, discus), Burton (2nd, 1500m), Mesa (3rd, 400m), Tuzak (3rd, shot put), Batis (3rd, 800m), Michelle Meugniot (3rd, 400m), Tafoya (3rd, 800m) and Adan Cruz (3rd, 3000m). The women's 4x400m relay team of Meugniot, Tafoya, Kiara Estrada and Michelle Hamm was third and the men's 4x100m relay team of Wyatt Stevenson, Roberto Ayala, Mesa and Lopez also captured bronze.

"We had hoped to finish second on both sides but ending up in the middle of the pack was an acceptable outcome," commented head track coach Tony Veney.

"The young people put out some great effort, but we just ran out of bullets at the end. The conference cycle (April 19 & 26) is only 2 weeks away now and the vision of who may be moving on to regionals is starting to come into focus. But with two weeks left to the regular season, there are still a dozen or so who still have a chance to advance."

The Pirates return to action Saturday April 6 when they compete in the Vaquero Invitational hosted by Glendale College. Field events begin at 9:30 am with the first track race starting at 12:30 pm.