California State Championships

 

The 2011 season ended for the Dons at American River College in Sacramento this past weekend.  The biggest highlight of the weekend was Sophomore Derek White winning the state title in the discus.  Derek's second throw went just short of 172 feet and held up for 4 more rounds to win the state title.  Derek became just the third male to win a state title for De Anza in the school history.  The other two titles came in 1986 and 1971.  Derek also ened up in 7th place to earn All-State honors in the hammer throw also.  Derek scored all 12 points for the Dons at the state meet to place De Anza in 23rd place as a team.  For the women, Alyssa Sialaris earned All-American honors for a second straight year in the Javelin as she finished second in the state.  She also earned All-State honors in the shot put by placing 6th and in the discus by placing 7th.  Alyssa scored 13 of the women's 23 points to help the Dons to a 12th place finish.  The other place winners for the women who placed in the top eight were:  Erica Arenas in the 800 finishing in 5th place, Christina Pando in the 800 finishing in 8th place, Kristine Talbot is the 3000 Steeplechase finishing 6th place, and the 4x400 relay team made up of Katherine Vande Pol, Erica Arenas, Ivy Gates and Marshey Brown. 

 

Northern California Championship Finals

 

The 2011 De Anza Women's Track team brought home the schools first Regional Track trophy for the first time in 8 years.  The women finished with 109.5 points and in second place out of the 24 Northern California Track Teams  American River was the team champions.  The only individual champion was Alyssa Sialaris who was the champion of the women's shot put.  Sialaris also qualified in the discus and javelin throw.  Freshman Chelsea Currier also qualified in the discus.  For the jumpers, Brianna Tucker finished in 4th to qualify in the pole vault and Chelsea Langeland finished in 6th to qualify in the triple jump.  On the track the Dons had a great 800 meter race as Erica Arenas and Christina Pando both had 4 second personal bests to finish in 2nd and 4th respectively and both qualify for the state championships.  The tradition of the long distance events qualifying for state over the past four years contines as Rebekah Phillips and Kristine Talbot will both be running in two long distance events each.  Phillips who qualified last week in the 10K also came in sixth to qualify in the 3000 Steeplechase.  Kristine Talbot was 2nd in the 3000 Steeplechase and 4th in the 5K.  Lisa Oliveras also had previously qualified in the Heptathlon.  The final race on the track was the 4x400 Relay made up of a team of Katherine Vande Pol, Erica Arenas, Ivy Gates, and Marshey Brown who finished in 2nd place to bring the total number of women's runners to 12, the largest group to qualify for the state championships ever for the women's team.  The Men's team came in 7th place and added 5 state qualifiers to the group traveling to Sacramento.   Derek White will be the only male athlete qualifying in 2 events, the hammer throw and the discus as he finished 2nd and 3rd overall.  Dan Winter will be joining White in the discus throw by finishing 4th.  Jordan Cusick finished 3rd in the pole vault to earn his ticket to Sacramento.  Greg Talley finished in 6th place after a jump off for the final qualifying spot.  One runner made it to the state finals and that was Cm April who finished 4th in the 3000 Steeplechase.  The state championships will take place May 20-21 at American River College in Sacramento. 

 

Northern California Championship Trials

 

The Men's and Women's Track Team had 36 athletes between both teams qualify for the Northern California Championships.  The preliminary events and the 10000 meter final were held this past Friday at Modesto Junior College.  After all the events were over the Dons ended up with another state qualifier in Rebekah Phillips and 29 athletes moving on to the Finals to be held next Saturday in Redding California.  The Men's team also got on the scoring board with Cm April's 5th place finish in the 10000 meter run, however April did not meet the State A standard so he will not be moving on to state in this event.  Some other highlights for the day were Erica Arenas and Christina Pando running the 4th and 7th fastest times in school history to move on to the finals.  Chelsea Langeland ended up having a huge personal best to qualify for finals and move up to 5th all-time in school history in the triple jump.  Alyssa Sialaris who will be competing in the finals in all 4 throwing events next week threw the second best mark in school history in the Javelin to rank second in the state thus far.  The final round of qualifying begins at Shasta College next Saturday morning. 

 

Back To Back Championships!

 

The De Anza Dons Women's Team won its second straight Coast Conference Track and Field Championship.  The women ended up winning its second title much easier than it did a year ago.  The women's team finished 115 points ahead of second place Hartnell.  The women won 8 titles in the 20 events contested in the meet, and were second in 8 others.  The women scored in every event and finished no lower than 5th in any event for their highest finisher.  Rebekah Phillips started off the running events by winning the 10000 meter run with a new school record.  She also won the 5000 meter run, both events she won as a freshman.  Alyssa Sialaris also was a two time repeat champion.   Sialaris repeated her championships in the Discus and Javelin from a year ago.  Kristine Talbot won the 3000 Steeplechase finishing a few tenths off the conference record for the event.  Katherine Vande Pol continued to improve in the 400 with a conference championship in the event.  The final two championships for the women were the 4x100 meter relay, made up of a team of Katherine Vande Pol, Marshey Brown, Ivy Gates and Natasha Sakellar.  Vande Pol, Brown, and Sakellar also teamed up with Erica Arenas to capture victory in the 4x400 relay.  For the men, a series of setbacks occured when Glyn Borel ended up pulling his quad in the 100 prelims, and a few people that were supposed to make the finals of their events didn't make the time.  However, the team rallied to finish second in the team race behind Hartnell College.  The men added five championships for the meet.  Brian Maldonado had huge personal bests in both the 100 and 200 to capture conference titles, and set school records in both races.  The 100 meter school record was one of the oldest records in school history standing since 1972.  This was also the first 100 meter champion in the schools history.  Cm April added the other championship on the track in the 3000 Steeplechase, running a personal best and the 10th fastest time in school history.  Derek White captured the Discus and Hammer throw titles to continue his fine season.  The Men's and Women's team has a total of 34 qualifiers who will continue on the next couple weeks to the Northern California Championships.  The first round of qualifying will be held this Friday at Modesto Junior College beginning at 11 for field events and 1:40 for the first running event. 

 

Last week before the Conference Championships

 

The last week before conference saw some of the De Anza Dons spending a couple days in San Mateo.  On Tuesday and Wednesday the Northern California Multis Championships took place in San Mateo.  The Dons had two women qualify to the field of 12 for the Heptathlon Championships for Northern California.  Lisa Oliveras started Tuesday off with a bang.  She had a lifetime best in the 100 hurdles with a time of 16.24 and then followed it up on the second event with another lifetime best in the high jump with a leap of 5'1".  The next event up was the shot put where Natasha Sakellar threw a season best of 29' to have the third best mark in the event.  Both women finished the day with the 200 into a wind that didn't lead to the best marks.  After Day 1, Lisa stood in 5th place and Natasha stood in 7th.  On the second day, competition began with the long jump where both girls had a tough time finding the board.  Next up in the Javelin, the both girls again didn't have their best marks.  Going into the final event.  the 800 Lisa and Natasha both ran well enough to finish in the top 8.  Lisa finished in 4th place to medal and score 5 team points for the upcoming Northern California Championships.  Her mark of 3759 points led her to be 6th in school history and allowed her to become the first state qualifier of the year.  She is also the first to qualify for state in the event in over 25 years.  Natasha finished in 7th place to add two team points for the Dons.  Immediately following the end of the Heptatlon competition CSM held a last chance meet for athletes to get marks and improve marks before next weeks championship season.  Some of the highlights of the meet, held on yet another cold windy day for a track meet.  Ivy Gates ran a 12.33, the second fastest time in school history to take section one of the 100.  Erica Arenas won the 800 with close to a season best.  Sabrina Prijatel also came close to a season best to win the long jump.  Alyssa Sialaris improved her lifetime best by a foot to win the discus.  For the men, Thompson Ly won the 400 with a season best 50.70.  Donald Wang had a big season best in the 400 hurdles to take the win, and the discus domination continued for the Dons with a 1, 2, 3 finish.  Derek White was first, while Dan Winter finished second with a state qualifying mark and the 8th best mark in school history with a toss of 159'3".  The Dons will head to San Jose City College on Tuesday for Day 1 of the Coast Conference Championships.  Events will begin at 1:00 with 4 field events being finals and the 10000 meter run as a final.  Also all running event prelims will be held.  The competition will finish on Friday at San Jose City.  The women look to defend their conference title from last year and the men look to improve on their 3rd place finish a year ago. 

 

Maurice Compton Invitational

 

The Maurcie Compton Invitational was the last regular season track meet the whole De Anza team will compete together as a whole team before the Coast Conference Championships, which will be held at San Jose City College April 26 and 29th.  For the second week in a row the De Anza Women's team flexed its muscle by winning the unofficial team score for the second week in a row.  The Don women beat the 22 team field and beat second place Hartnell by over 50 points.  The ladies scored in every event except Long Jump and the 400 hurdles (since no one was entered in the event).  The women recorded 6 first place finishes on the day.  Alyssa Sialaris continued her stellar season by adding two more wins on the season, taking the Shot Put and Javelin titles.  She was also second in the discus.  Kristine Talbot easily took the 5000 title over Rebekah Phillips who was second in the field.  Ivy Gates ran another great time in the 100 and was runner up in the 200 with a season best time of 25.67.  Katherine Vande Pol took yet another second off her 400 time to take the title and dip under 59 seconds for the first time in her career.  Gates became a last second replacement for the 4x400 team and helped De Anza run a 9 second season best with Vande Pol, Erica Arenas and Natasha Sakeller and win a close race over conference rival Laney College.  Laura Foster and Chelsea Currier also hit personal bests to achieve the State "A" Qualifying standard in the 3000 Steeplechase and Hammer Throw repsectively.  Curriers throw also was the farthest in school history by a freshman and moves her into second all-time in school history.  For the Men, with a few injuries being nursed and a couple athletes getting sick the men were a little short handed.  However, the men that were at the meet stepped up to give a great effort.  Daniel Brody was the lone champion for the men on the day winning the 3000 meter steeplechase.  The men finished in 4th out of 18 teams.  Modesto Junior College was in first and Coast Conference rival City Collge of San Francisco were first and second and host college Merritt was in third one point ahead of the Dons.  Derek White finished in second place in the Hammer Throw and Third in the Discus.  Greg Talley and Jordon Cusick also recorded runner-up performances in the Triple Jump and Pole Vault respectively.  Lisa Oliveras and Natasha Sakellar will be at the College of San Mateo for the Northern California Multi Championships on Tuesday and Wednesday going for their chance to compete at the State Championships in May.  A few other competitors will also compete at CSM on Wednesday in a last chance qualifier going for a few last good marks before the Championship Season begins.     

 

Ed Adams Invitational

 

The Dons had an interesting beginning to the day heading to Salinas, CA for the Ed Adams Invitational.  The teams were split onto two buses to travel to the meet this weekend and as the women's bus entered Salinas, it had a mechanical malfunction.  So stuck in the middle of an on ramp off the highway the guys bus had to pick up the women who were in the first events of the day.  By the time the teams made it to the meet they only had about 25 minutes to warm-up, check-in, and begin their events.  This however, did not seem to slow down the Dons.  For the ladies, Brianna Tucker broke her own school record in the pole vault in the first event of the day with a vault of 10'10" to place second. Lisa Oliveras and Mary Siang also placed in the pole vault.  The women's javelin was also starting as the women got to their event.  Alyssa Sialaris stepped out with very little warm-up and took first place.  The momentum seemed to carry on for most of the day as the men finished in second place over the two day meet out of 11 teams and the women took the title out of 12 teams in unofficial scoring.  For the first event of the day on the track, the 3000 meter steeplechase was won by Kristine Talbot with a school record time of 11:27.22 breaking the old school record by over 12 seconds.  Rebekah Phillips and Laura Foster were third and fourth in the event respectively.  For the men's steeplechase, Cm April ran a season best time breaking the 10 minute barrier for the first time with a time of 9:59.91.  Daniel Brody and Daniel Damian finished second and fifth repectively in the event for the Dons.  One other school record fell on this day.  Derek White broke the schools discus record, with a toss of 178'0".  He broke the school record by 9'11" and it was a record that had stood for 36 years.  This throw also put White back into the lead on the state rankings.  Wade Tsang also threw a toss of 156'11" to have a lifetime best throw that moved him 8th best on the state rankings.  At the end of the day the women recorded first place finishes in the following events:  Ivy Gates in the 100 and 200, Kathrine Vande Pol in the 400, Erica Arenas in the 800, Kristine Talbot in the 3000 Steeplechase and 5000, Alyssa Sialaris in the shot put and javelin, and the 4x400 relays.  Only a dropped baton in the 4x100 by the women while they were in the lead kept the women from scoring in every event.  For the Men, Brian Maldonado won the 200 in a season best time of 22.28 and White added the Hammer Throw title for the individual winners with April in the steeplechase.  The teams will travel to Oakland next friday for the Maurice Compton Invitational for the final meet before the conference championships that the whole team will compete together at. 

 

American River Invitational

 

The Men's and Women's teams traveled to American River College, which will host this years California State track and field championships.  With 19 junior colleges and four NCAA Division II schools there the competition was very good and it also was the best weather the Dons have got to compete in this year.  For the women, some of the highlights were Alyssa Sialaris who placed in the top 8 in 3 different events.  In the javelin, Alyssa was second place.  The discus saw Sialaris hit a lifetime best and 10th best throw in school history with a toss of 131'1" and she also hit a lifetime best in the Hammer Throw but did not place.  Her toss of 125'5" was the fourth best toss in school history.  Sialaris also finished sixth in the shot put.  Kristine Talbot ran a lifetime best in the 3000 Steeple chase.  Her time of 11:55 is the second fastest time in school history and was good enough for 3rd place in the event.  Lisa Oliveras jumped a PR in the high jump at 4'11.5".  The women's 4x400 relay of Christina Pando, Erica Arenas, Kathrine Vande Pol, and Chelsea Langeland ran a season best of 4:09.  Pando, Arenas, and Vande Pol all also placed in their individual events the 1500, 800, and 400 respectively.  For the Men, Derek White finished in 2nd place in the Discus and 4th place in the Hammer Throw to highlight the best finishes for the guys.  Tariq Adams hit a season best in the 1500 and placed in the top eight with a NorCal qualifying time of 4:12.  Adams also teamed with Waseem Ballou, Cornelio Chaidez, and Thompson Ly to run a season best 3:27 in the 4x400 relay and placed 8th overall.  Ly, Glyn Borel, Keshawn Buchanan, and Brian Maldonado teamed up for an 8th place finish in the 4x100.  The teams will travel to the Ed Adams Invitational next Saturday in Salinas.  The meet hosted by Hartnell College will begin at 10 AM. 

 

Stanford Invitational and Chabot Relays

 

The members of the track team again went to two different meets this week.  Some of them even competed in two different meets.  For the people who went to the Stanford Invitational it gave the athletes a chance to compete against and see some of the best people in the United States.  For the women the 4x100 team had a pretty bad bobbled handoff and didn't come in as they had hoped.  Erica Arenas also competed in the 400 and got to run from lane one in the rain and ran a season best time.  For the men, the 4x100 team also had a bobbled handoff but still managed to finish in 7th place overall.  Derek White competed in two different events at the Stanford Invitational.  White finished 14th in the collegiate Hammer Throw, and was the only junior college competitor in the collegiate Discus where he finished 5th place.  Greg Talley also competed in the High Jump.  The rest of the squad competed in the Chabot Relays both Friday and Saturday.  On Friday, the Dons won all three coed field event relays.  They were first in the Long Jump, High Jump and Pole Vault Relays, where three athletes competed and their marks were added together to get a team score.  Other Friday winners included Alyssa Sialaris in the Javelin, Ivy Gates in the 100, and Katherine Vande Pol in the 200. For the men Cornelio Chaidez won the 400.  On Saturday, Alyssa Sialaris won the Shot Put,and Rebekah Phillips won the 5000 for the women.  For the Men, Derek White won the Discus.  Overall, both the Men and the Women took home the team title for the two day event.  The team will travel to American River College in Sacramento this week to compete on the track the 2011 State Championships will be held on Saturday. 

 

Hornet Invitational and Raydell Barkley Relays

 

The Dons had yet another week this season where Mother Nature did not cooperate with them getting a lot of good marks.  With huge winds, cold and rain at both meets the Dons attended, very few PR's and Season's Best Marks were had.  At the Hornet Invitational hosted by Sacramento State University, the meet was run under cold and rainy conditions that seemed to get worse as the meet went on.  Many of the teams left early and only a few stuck around until the end.  However, the long wait was worth it for Chelsea Currier.  The freshman ended up competing in the last event of the day the Discus and ended up releasing a lifetime best mark and 9th best mark in school history, with a toss of 131'3".  It was also good enough for 3rd place in the meet.  At the Raydell Barkley Relays held at Delta College in Stockton, the weather ended up forcing an early end to the meet.  However, before the meet ended, freshman Laura Foster took over 35 seconds off her 3000 Steeplechase, to hit the State "B" qualifying mark with her 12:37.68.  It was also good enough to land in 5th place in school history.  One other event of note was the Men's Shot Put with all four competitors: Wade Tsang, Junior Miranda, Albert Nguyen, and Mike Khourouzian all had a season best mark.  The Dons head into finals week this upcoming week and will finish the week with some runners heading to Stanford for the Stanford Invitational and the rest will be heading to the Chabot Relays. 

 

Aggie Open

 

The Men's and Women's Teams traveled to the UC Davis campus this past Saturday and had a few bright spots in this very tough meet against a number of NCAA Division I teams.  Some of the bright spots for the women were Kristine Talbot, who met the State "A" Standard for the 5000 meter run.  It was also good enough to ranks 7th all-time in school history with her time of 18:36.36.  Erica Arenas met the 800 meter run State "B" Standard with a lifetime best of 2:23.38 which betters her own 9th best mark in school history.  For the Men, the Greg Talley did not have a PR but still jumped good enough to be the number one collegiate jumper at the meet.  Very few of the Dons finished in the top 8 runners due to the level of competition, however the Dons gained valuable experience competing against bigger four-year schools.  In the long run the Dons will benefit from learning to compete in a meet like this.  Some of the Dons will step up again in competition as they travel to Sacramento State University for the Hornet Invitational and some others will get an easier week as they travel to Delta College in Stockton on the same day.   

 

Kim Duyst Invitational

 

The Men's and Women's Track Teams had their first early morning trip this past Saturday to travel to Turlock, CA, where the Kim Duyst Invitational was held at the CSU Stanislaus campus.  This also marked the first time the teams stepped up to face four-year school competition.  Another first for the teams was the ability to compete under very good weather conditions.  All of these things seemed to spark a lot of the Dons as most responded with season best marks.  In the unofficial scoring of the meet, the Men's team finished 5th out of 24 teams with athletes entered in the meet.  They were the second highest junior college team finishing behind third place Sacramento City College.  Chico State and Southern Oregon University tied for first place with 92 points.  Sacramento City and host CSU Stanislaus tied for 3rd with 83 points.  The Dons finished with 55 points.  The men finished ahead of 9 four-year schools including 2 NCAA Division I teams.  The highlight of the day was Sophomore thrower Derek White's day.  Derek finished first out of 46 Discus throwers.  He tossed the discus 163'8" to win the event.  Derek also finished 4th (2nd out of collegiate throwers) in the Hammer Throw competition with a toss of 166'9" to increase his lifetime best throw by 18 feet.  Both of the throws meet the state qualifying "A" mark standard, and the Hammer Throw marks was the second best in school history.  The Dons had three athletes finish 3rd among collegiate entries.  Greg Talley finished in 3rd in the High Jump with a leap fo 6'6", Jordan Cusick finished 3rd in the Pole Vault with a vault of 14'3.25", Glyn Borel ran a season best 10.97 to finish 3rd in the 100.  The 4x100 team of Thompson Ly, Borel, Keshaun Buchanan and Brian Maldonado ran a season best 42.35 to also finish in 3rd place.  Daniel Brody and Cm April ran their first 3000SC of the year and finished 6th and 7th respectively.  For the ladies, the Dons finished in 6th place out of 23 teams.  Chico State finished in first place for the unofficial team scoring with 230.5 points.  San Francisco State was second with 114, host CSU Stanislaus was third with 63 points, Southern Oregon was fourth with 60 points, Humboldt State was 5th with 54.5 points.  De Anza had 51.5 points.  De Anza was the top scoring Community College and beat 6 four-year schools with 3 of them being NCAA Division I.  Alyssa Sialaris was the lone winner for the women with a winning throw of 125'1" in the Javelin Throw.  Sialaris also threw a lifetime best of 41'8 in the shot put to earn runner-up honors in that event as well.  Sialaris also threw a lifetime best in the discus to finish in 6th place beating out teammate Chelsea Currier by one inch who placed 7th in the event.  Brianna Tucker finished tied for 6th with a personal best jump in the pole vault of 9'8".  Ivy Gates also had another good day finishing 4th in the 100, 8th in the 200 and teamed up with Natasha Sakellar, Erica Arenas and Kathrine Vande Pol to finish 3rd in the 4x100.  Sakellar, Arenas and Vande Pol and Christina Pando to finish in 6th place in the 4x400.  Kristine Talbot ran her first 3000 Steeplechase ever in her life and ran the 3rd fastest time in school history and finished in 5th place, just ahead of Rebekah Phillips in 6th.  The Dons continue their early morning travels next Saturday when they will be in the Aggie Open hosted by UC Davis.   

 

MPC All-Comers Meet

 

The De Anza track teams had to be very flexible this week with the rare snow forcasts in the Bay Area this week.  Both teams were scheduled to compete at the College of San Mateo on Friday, however early in the week looking at the forcasts the College of San Mateo decided to move their meet to Thursday afternoon.  Due to many students being in the middle of mid-term and having very full Thursday academic schedules, De Anza decided to skip this meet and go to Monterey Peninsula College on Saturday and run in their All-Comers Meet.  This actually turned out to be a pretty good decision as most of the meet was run under slightly colder temperatures than would be ideal and was a bit breezy, but did get to stay dry for the entire meet.  Due to the last minute change in schedule the Dons were slightly undermanned due to previous work schedules and some illness that is going thru the team.  6 Women and 4 men were unable to make the trip to the meet.  The women despite missing some of their top scorers from the week before still managed to hold off rival Hartnell for a second consecutive week in the team scoring.  The unofficial scoring of the meet had De Anza with 129 points and to Hartnell's 94 points.  Santa Rosa College, led by former De Anza assistant coach Jerry Noble, was third with 38 points and host Monterey Peninsula College was fourth with 4 points.  The women won 13 out of 19 events ran for the meet.  Some of the top performers included Alyssa Sialaris, who finished first in the Discus, Shot Put and Javelin along with 3rd in the Hammer Throw.  Her 124' toss in the Javelin and her Shot Put of 39'11.25" both were good enough to earn state "A" mark qualifying standards.  Freshman Brianna Tucker won the Pole Vault with a mark of 9'5.75" to move to 2nd all-time in school history and earn a "B" mark qualifying mark for the state meet.  Ivy Gates recorded 3 wins with victories in the 100, 200 and anchoring the victorious 4x100 relay.  For the men, being short handed really effected the team scores this week.  As they finished second to Hartnell who they defeated a week earlier.  Hartnell beat De Anza 128 to 85 in the team scoring.  Santa Rosa and Monterey Peninsula College finished 3rd and 4th resepectively with scores of 27 and 26.  Derek White won the Hammer Throw and the Discus Throw in the meet and was second in the Javelin Throw.  Derek's toss of 158'10" in the discus currently ranks him number one in the state.  Glyn Borel won the 100 with a time of 10.99 and Brian Maldonado came through the line in 22.61 to win the 200.  Borel and Maldonado also teamed up with Thompson Ly and Keshawn Buchanan to win the 4x100 relay.  Cm April won the 5000 and Scott Blomquist won the 400 to capture the other victories for the men.  Both teams will take a step up in competition as they travel to CSU Stanislaus next Saturday to compete in the Kim Duyst Invitational. 

 

2011 Season Underway

 

The 2011 Track and Field Season is underway.  Both the Men's and Women's teams traveled to Hartnell College for what was supposed to be the Coast Conference Preview Meet.  However, due to unfavorable weather conditions most of the teams in the Coast Conference backed out of the meet.  Only four teams, San Jose City and Monterrey Peninsula College joined De Anza and host Hartnell, showed up to compete.  Four field events were cancelled due to the weather and facility conditions, but with 14 events still being completed De Anza won both team titles.  The women easily outdistanced host Hartnell winning 9 out of the 14 events and finishing second in 4 out of the other 5.  The winners for the women were: Ivy Gates in the 100, Natasha Sakellar in the 200, Katherine Vande Pol in the 400, Erica Arenas in the 800, Kristine Talbot in the 1500, Christina Pando in the 400 Hurdles, and Chelsea Currier in the Discus, along with the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.  The only race the Women's Team did not score in was the 100 Hurdles due to the fact no one was entered in the race for the Dons.  For the Men's team it was a much closer battle with Hartnell but in the end the Dons prevailed.  The Men won 7 events and scored in 12 out of 14 events.  The winners for the men were:  Brian Maldonado in the 200, Cornelio Chaidez in the 400, Cm April in the 1500, Sorony Hiep in the Triple Jump, Derek White in both the Discus and the Hammer Throw, and the 4x100 relay.  Times and distances were not that great for the meet due to the less than favorable weather conditions but the Dons will definitely gain from this experience and look to improve each week during this season.  The Dons are scheduled to compete at the College of San Mateo next Friday beginning at noon for the first events. 

 

2010 California State Championships

The end of the 2010 season came to an end in Lancaster, California last Friday and Saturday.  The conditions at Antelope Valley College, who hosted the championships were less than ideal.  With cooler than normal temperatures and 25-30 MPH winds many events were greatly effected by the weather.  The Dons did have some shining bright spots through the rough weather.  For the Women, Alyssa Sialaris had the third best Javelin Throw in school history to finish in 3rd place and earn All-American Status.  Sialaris also finished in 9th place in the Discus and 11th place in the Shot Put.  Freshman Erica Arenas finished in 8th place to earn a medal in the 400.  Sophomore Kirsti Whitmyre earned her 3rd state track medal in the 3000 Steeplechase finishing in 8th place to finish off her highly decorated career at De Anza.  Other results for the women were:  Jamila McIntosh 9th place in the Hammer Throw, Kelly Thom 11th place in the High Jump, and Rebekah Phillips 9th in both the 3000 Steeplechase and the 5000.  For the Men, Kevin Rutledge became the first male All-American in his coaching career by finishing in 4th place in the Decathlon.  Rutledge broke his own school record for the new table Decathlon by 395 points to score 6182.  Freshman Josh Tran finished in 6th place in one of the closest races of the meet to earn a medal.  Sophomore Clifford Crum ran a smart race in the 10000 to come in with an 8th place finish.  Freshman Derek White, threw the second best throw in school history and earned a 5th place medal in the Discus on his first throw of the competition.  Other results for the men:  Ka Wai Ng finished in 9th in the Triple Jump, Greg Talley finished in 9th place in the High Jump, Marko Vatavuk missed opening height in the Pole Vault.  The Dons finished up one of the most successful seasons in school history and to see all of the results and records for the Dons this past season please click on the All-Time Top 10 list and Schedule tabs on the side of this page.

Northern California Championship Finals

The 2010 Dons went with 31 athletes to the Northern California Finals Friday afternoon and evening at American River College and put on one of the biggest assaults on the De Anza Top 10 list in recent history. The Men's and Women's teams had previously qualified 3 athletes to the state meet in early qualifying rounds, but this was the main event for qualifying.  Greg Talley set a school record in the High Jump finishing in 3rd place with a leap of 6'8.75" almost a three inch personal best.  Ka Wai Ng inched closer to the school record in the Triple Jump breaking the 48' barrier for the first time in his life by 3/4 of an inch.  Ka finished in second place and will be headed to state.  Derek White hit the 7th best mark in school history in the Discus throw with a toss of 158'2" to finish in third place and punch his ticket to the state meet.  Kevin Rutledge finished the Long Jump with a 5th place finish and a 6th best jump in school history, jumping 22'10.5" qualifying for state.  Marko Vatavuk after getting Disqualified in the 400 hurdles came back and redeemed himself with the 8th best Pole Vault in school history to finish in 3rd place clearing 14'8.25" to claim third place and a trip to state.  In one of the most exciting races of the day, freshman Josh Tran came from 6th place with 200 meters to go in the 800 to run to sprint to the front and claim the Northern California 800 meter championship running 1:53.85 currently the 4th fastest time in the state.  Clifford Crum who previously qualified in the 10000 just missed a second event by finishing in 7th place in the 3000 Steeplechase.  Rutledge scored a point in the Javelin finishing in 8th place.  Rutledge also teamed up with Tran, Ted Geen, and Scott Blomquist to finish in 6th place in the 4x400 relay to score 3 points.  The only other points scored on the day was by the 4x100 relay team of Green, Mike Borg, Ka Wai Ng, and EJ Sims who came in .11 off the school record with a time of 41.62 to finish in 6th place.  For the women, Jamila McIntosh on her third attempt of the of the competition smashed her school record with a toss of 154'4" to claim the runner up position in the Hammer Throw and will be making the trip to state.  Kelly Thom jumped 5'1" to claim third place in the High Jump to make it to state.  Lisa Oliveras also placed in the High Jump, finishing 8th but not qualifying for the state meet.  Alyssa Sialaris continued her outstanding season qualifying for the state meet in three different events.  She finished in 6th place in discus throw with her only legal throw,  5th in the Javelin Throw and 5th in the Shot Put with a season best  38'9.5" the 9th best toss in school history.  Kirsti Whitmyre didn't make it look pretty but got the job done, while stuggling with the water jump running an 11:50 in the 3000 Steeplechase to finish in second place and make a return trip to the state meet.  Rebekah Phillips who had already qualified in the 10000 finished in 5th place to qualify for the state meet in Steeplechase and later finished in 7th place in the 5000 but will qualify to the state meet as an alternate in that event as well.  Erica Arenas ran a personal best 57.25 the 9th best time in school history to finish in third place in the 400 and qualify for the state meet.  Other point scorers who didn't make it to state was Kim Kilgroe who finished in 7th in the 3000 Steeplechase, Christina Pando finishing in 8th place in the 1500 and the 4x100 team of Meghan Thomas, Aly Rajah, Arenas, and Chelsea Langeland running a season best 50.01 finishing in 8th place.  13 athletes will travel to Lancaster, CA for the 2010 California Community College State meet at Antelope Valley College, which will be contested on May 21-22.  The men's team finished in 5th place out of the 23 Northern California teams with 58 points finishing as the top Coast Conference Team.  The women finished in 6th place with 55 points out of 24 teams. 

Northern California Championship Trials

Two more Dons will be joining Kevin Rutledge (qualified two weeks ago in the Decathlon) at the State Championships as the 10,000 meter run finals were the only final event contested on the day.  For the women, Rebekah Phillips finished in 4th place to earn her trip to state.  For the men, Clifford Crum ran a 30 second PR and finished in 6th place in a wild finish.  Crum was in 6th place with one lap to go and was passed by a Modesto runner for the last spot to qualify, but as Crum started sprinting and racing the Modesto runner both passed the Fresno runner who was in 5th place with about 200 meters to go and both ended up qualifying for the state meet.  The rest of the day was about just moving on to compete another week.  35 Dons were qualified into the Northern California Championships at the start of the day, and 31 of them are still going to be competing at the finals of the Northern California Championships on Day 2 May 14th at American River College in Sacramento.   The men will be competing in 12 of the 19 events left and the women will be competing in 11 of 19 events.  Field events start at 2:00 PM next Friday and Running events kick off at 5:00 PM.

Coast Conference Championships Day 3

Day 3 was the final day of the Coast Conference Championships and it turned out to be a big day for the women.  The De Anza women claimed their first Coast Conference Title in 9 years.  The ladies ended up scoring 241 points to beat second place Laney College by 54 points.  Hartnell College was third with 165 points.  The other 6 teams in the conference scored under 62 points each.  Alyssa Sialaris ended up scoring 40 total team points over the 3 days of competition, which would have actually placed 6th place as a team and one point behind 5th place West Valley College.  Sialaris won the Discus, Javelin, and Shot Put.  She also was 4th place in both the High Jump and Hammer Throw.  Other final day champions were Kirsti Whitmyre who won the 3000 Steeplechase, beating out teammate Rebekah Phillips who placed second and Kim Kilgroe who was 4th and Yasamin Yazdi who finished 5th.  Phillips won the other title on the day with a victory in the 5000.  Some of the other events that helped De Anza win the title was the High Jump where the Kelly Thom, Lisa Oliveras, Sialaris, Sabrina Prijatel, and Erica Arenas placing 2nd thru 7th place.  The Dons placed 4 girls in the 1500 and 3 girls in the 800 and triple jump.  Erica Arenas lost a close race in the 400 to finish second by .10 seconds running a season best of 57.34.  Also each of the hurdle races the women were predicted to only score 4 points total.  However, Meghan Thomas and Lisa Oliveras combined to score 12 points with personal bests in both the 100 and 400 hurdles.  18 out of 22 of the women will now be competing for a chance at going to state in the NorCal Championships the next two Fridays (May 7 and May 14).  The men were predicted to finish in 3rd place behind CCSF and Hartnell and they did exactly that.  However, the race was not supposed to be very close, but the De Anza Men gave it a valiant effort to miss out on second place by only one point to Hartnell the runner up.  Ka Wai Ng earned the only conference championship on the day with a season best leap in the triple jump of 47'9.75" on his final attempt.  A number of the men finished in second place.  Derek White was second in the Discus Throw, Greg Talley finished second in the High Jump, Josh Tran was nipped at the line in the 800 to place second and both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays finished second with season best times.  Seventeen men will also be advancing to the NorCal Championships with a chance to advance to the state meet with Kevin Rutledge who is already going to state in the Decathlon. 

Coast Conference Championships Day 2

Day 2 of the Coast Conference Championship was another successful day for the Dons.  In the running events, the men qualified at least one person for finals in every event but the 400 meters.  They qualified multiple runners in all of the events 800 meters and longer.  For the women, they too were successful qualifying runners in all events except the 200.  Four field events were contested as finals on Day 2 of the Championships.  For the women, two champions were crowned.  Alyssa Sialaris earned the victory in the Javelin throw and the ladies also picked up a 5th place finish from Sabrina Prijatel and a 7th place from Lisa Oliveras in the event.  Jamila McIntosh broke her own school record with a toss of 146'9" to gain the championship.  Sialaris also finished 4th for the Dons in the event.  In the Pole Vault Oliveras was a close second just missing out on the championship based on the number of misses in the competition.  Chelsea Langeland was 5th and Kim Kilgroe was 6th in the event.  The long jump also saw two ladies score points with Kelly Thom earning a 5th place finish and Prijatel finishing 7th.  The men's field events saw a good start in the Javelin, with Kevin Rutledge finishing 2nd place and Anthony Hall finishing 4th.  Rutledge also came back in the Long Jump with a 3rd place finish.  He was joined by Mike Borg with a seventh place finish, even though Borg only jumped once in the competition nursing a foot injury.  Derek White was second in the Hammer Throw in the first of three events he will be competing in this week.  In the Pole Vault for the men, Marko Vatavuk after running the 400 meter hurdle prelims came right back and regained his breath to have a season best Vault of 14'3" to win the Pole Vault title.  The third Pole Vault title in three years for the Dons.  Rutledge also had a personal best of 11'4" to earn 3rd place and Anthony Hall finished in 6th place.  Through 5 out of 20 scoring events in the Championships, De Anza leads the men's competition with 56 points, followed by Hartnell with 50 in second and San Mateo in third with 29 points.  On the women's side De Anza has 74 points to lead.  They are followed by Hartnell with 35 points and Laney College with 30 points is in 3rd place.  The final day of competition will be on Saturday May 1 at 10:00 AM at San Jose City College. 

Coast Conference Championships Day 1

Day 1 of the Coast Conference Championships saw the 10,000 meter run finals contested.  For the women's team freshman Rebekah Phillips ran the second best time in school history and earned an individual championship right off the bat for the Dons in her first ever 10,000 meter race in her life.  Phillips broke away with about six laps to go from the group she was running with and held off a hard charging Kirsti Whitmyre, who won the 10,000 last season to help the Dons go 1-2 in the event beating two very good Hartnell runners.  Kim Kilgroe also ran her first 10,000 and managed to run the 7th best time in school history and score a fifth place for De Anza.  After the first event of the Coast Conference Championships with 20 events to go the ladies are in first with 22 points to Hartnell's 16 and San Jose City is third with 1 point.  On the men's side, Clifford Crum ran a fifty second personal best as he got nipped by a Hartnell runner to finish in second place for the Dons and moved from 9th to 6th on the schools best list.  The men's scoring through one event is Hartnell with 19 point in first, De Anza is second with 8 points, followed by City College of San Francisco with 7 points and the College of San Mateo is fourth with 5 points.  Wednesday April 28th is the second day of the championships which will feature four women's and men's final events (Hammer Throw, Javelin, Pole Vault, and Long Jump) and preliminary running events starting at 1:30 PM.  The Finals of running events and the other four field events will begin Saturday May 1st at San Jose City College at 10:00 AM. 

Maurice Compton Invitational

The regular season came to an end last weekend for the De Anza Dons Track Teams at the Maurice Compton Invitational held at Merritt College in Oakland, CA.  The Dons came away with a great competitive attitude after this meet, and had many solid performances to show for the day.  In unofficial scoring the Women placed in second place 29 points behind conference rival Laney College out of the 18 womens teams competing.  The Men place in third out of 16 teams behind team champions Modesto and one point out of second place City College of San Francisco.  On the track for the women, Kirsti Whitmyre won the steeplechase for the lone women's victory on the track.  In the 800, Erica Arenas returned to the track after a few weeks nursing and injury to claim second place and ninth place in school history.  Right behind her was Christina Pando who place third and also jumped into tenth place all-time in school history.  Rebekah Phillips lost to NorCal defending champion and current leader in the 5000 to claim a second place victory in the event.  In the final event of the day, Arenas and Pando teamed with Meghan Thomas and Chelsea Langeland to earn a second place and seven second season best, with Langeland providing a lot of excitment passing CCSF and Hartnell in the last 25 meters of the race to claim the second place.  In the field events for the women, Alyssa Sialaris had a very good day.  Sialaris had a PR in the Discus to win the event.  She also had a runner-up position with another PR in the Javelin.  To finish off her day she added a fourth place finish in the Shot Put.  Jamilla McIntosh also had a second place finish the Hammer throw to give the women's team another great perfomance in all of the throwing events.  In the Jumps events, Kelly Thom earned a second place finish in the High Jump and led a group of 4 jumpers who all cleared at least 4'8".    For the men on the track, Clifford Crum had competed in his first ever steeplechase and claimed a third place finish and a ninth place in school history.  Crum also came back later in the day to claim a third place finish in the 5000.  The men's 4x400 also set a season best to claim third place with the team of Scott Blomquist, Ted Green, Josh Tran and Mike Borg.  In the field events, Marko Vatavuk earned a first place with a season best vault of 13'8" in the Pole Vault.  Ka Wai Ng jumped his lifetime best with a hop, skip and a jump of 47'7.25" in the triple jump to earn a runner-up position and the top college jumper of the day.  Kevin Rutledge successfully earned a 3rd place finish in the High Jump, while tuning up for the NorCal Multi Championships.  Rutledge also set a PR and earned a second place finish in the Javelin with a toss of 176'11".  Derek White earned the final top three finish of the day with his final toss in the Discus Throw to earn a second place finish.  Five of the Dons (Kevin Rutledge, Marko Vatavuk, Anthony Hall, Lisa Oliveras, and Alyssa Sialaris will be competing April 20-21st at the NorCal Multi Championships in Sacramento in an attempt to qualify for the state meet.  The rest of the Dons have the week off in preparation for the Coast Conference Championships to held April 26th, April 28th and May 1 at San Jose City College.

Ed Adams Invitational

The Men's and Women's Track teams traveled to Salinas, California to participate in the Ed Adams Invitational and came home with a lot of hardware.  The women's team placed in first in the overall scoring in the ten team field.  Outdistancing the host Hartnell by twenty points.  The women had three individual champions on the day.  Kelly Thom hit a personal best 5'1" to claim first place in the high jump.  Alyssa Sialaris claimed the other two first place victories for the women in the Javelin and the Discus.  Sialaris also claimed 8th in the Hammer Throw and 2nd in the Shot Put.  The women took home a total of 17 medals on the day for top three finishes.  The Men had 4 individual champions.  Ka Wai Ng continued his great season of triple jump with a first place finish.  Josh Tran had another big afternoon anchoring the 4x100 to a season best time and second place finish, then came back to have a second place finish in the 400, and about an hour later finished in the lead in one of the most exciting days of the year finishing in first in the 800.  And finished off the day with the fastest split in the 4x400 team that finished 3rd.  Cliff Crum easily outdistanced the field from the the opening gun in the 1500 to win the event.  Abiy Gebrekristos won the 5k also winning by leading all 12 and half laps to beat out teammate Crum.  The mens team finished in second place 18 points behind the host Hartnell.  The teams will have their last regular season meet of the year this Saturday at Merritt College in Oakland.  

Johnny Mathis Invitational

The Johnny Mathis Invitational saw some big marks over the two days of competition.  Both Men's and Women's teams held their own against some very big teams.  In unofficial team scoring the men came in 3rd place out of 13 teams scoring 86 points, losing to UC Davis and Hartnell College, and beating 4 NCAA Division 1 schools and two Division 2 schools.  Some of the top finishers that led the team were Ted Green Finishing 2nd in the 200 (22.76) with a big season PR, and edging out teammate Josh Tran by .01.  Tran also finished third in the 400 with a season's best 49.70.  The two of them teamed with Scott Blomquist and Marko Vatavuk to finish in 2nd place in the 4x400 relay also.  Vatavuk also finished 3rd place in the pole vault competition.  Out of the collegiate competitors in the Hammer Throw Derek White hit a PR 146'4" to finish as the second highest college thrower, to round out all of the top three finishers for the meet.  For the ladies, two school records fell and the team finished in 4th place with 81 team points, losing only to UC Davis, San Francisco State, and Humboldt State.  Jamila McIntosh crushed her previous best mark and the school record in the Hammer Throw with a toss of 145'2", to finish in third place for the meet and second among collegiate throwers.  The second school record was Kirsti Whitmyre lowering her record she set the week before by another 17 seconds in the 3000 Steeplechase running an 11:40.45 which was good enough to be the lone champion for the Dons in the meet.  She was followed by Rebekah Phillips 11:58 and Kim Kilgroe 12:00, who helped the Dons to a 1,2,3 sweep of the event with all three hitting PR's and breaking what was the old school record two weeks ago held by Kilgroe.  These athletes were the only 4 to reach the top three places in the meet.  Many of the athletes competing set personal and/or season bests and complete results can be seen on our schedule page, by clicking on the link.  The teams will be in action again next weekend April 9th (the 10K run) and April 10th all other events in Salinas, California at the Ed Adams Invitational. 

Chabot Distance Carnival and Relays

The De Anza Men and Women's team members who did not qualify for the Stanford Invitational shook off all of their stress and exhaustion from finishing Finals week at De Anza, which some of them finished the morning of the first day of competition.  The relief of finishing the week appeared to show through with so many fine performances and season bests to name.  For the women's team on Friday, the group of Jamila McIntosh, Alyssa Sialaris and Sabrina Prijatel competed as a team of three in the javelin competition to win the Javelin Relay and establish a school record in the event.  This was one of seven field event relay school records established over the two days of competition.  McIntosh and Sialaris teamed with Rachel Coutant to also set the mark in the Shot Put, Discus and Hammer Relays.  The trio also was victorious in the Hammer Throw Relay and finished in second in the other two relays.  The track on Friday was good to the women as well.  Kirsti Whitmyre ran an 11:57.91 to break the school record in the 3000 Steeplechase in the first time competing in the event and winning by over a minute.  Next up Rebekah Phillips ran a seasons best by over 14 seconds in the 1500 to claim victory.  The victories kept coming as Christina Pando took victory in the 800.  Stacie Herda ran her first 10,000 meter run and moved into 10th all-time in school history and earned the victory.  The only event the ladies did not win was the 5000 meter race which was actually won by assistant coach Jessica Paranthaman.  For the men; Anthony Hall, Ted Green and Andrew Dela Cruz just missed a school record by a few feet but did throw well enough to win the Javelin Relay.  On the track, David Rios beat teammate Daniel Brody to win the Steeplechase running a season bests.  Clifford Crum ran under 5:10 running a low 5:05 to win the 1500 with a great last lap to leave the field behind.  Crum also came back about 50 minutes later to earn a 4th place finish in the 800 breaking 2:00, also for his first time in his collegiate career.  One of the people who beat him was teammate Josh Tran who also smashed the 2:00 minute barrier running a 1:57.44 good enough for second place in the event.  Gene Burinsky easily outdistanced the field in the 10000 running his first ever 10K run.  In the 5000 meter run, Daniel Brody did not win the event but was the first collegiate runner to cross the line with a third place overall finish.  On Saturday a number of fine performances were put together.  Anthony Hall, Scott Blomquist and Martin Stangeland earned victory in the High Jump Relay.  In the Triple Jump with all three jumpers setting season or lifetime bests, Ted Green, James Jones and Mike Borg earned victory.  Borg combined with Josh Tran and Jones to also win the Long Jump Relay.  For the women, Alyssa Sialaris, Lisa Oliveras and Kelly Thom won the High Jump Relay establishing a school record.  Thom and Oliveras also with Prijatel won the Long Jump Relay setting yet another school record, and Thom Prijatel and Chelsea Langeland set the final record and last victory of the day for the women in the Triple Jump Relay.  The men's and women's teams will have one more meet before returning to classes for Spring quarter.  The teams will head to San Francisco State University on April 2nd and 3rd to compete in the Johnny Mathis Invitational.  The Hammer competition will be held on Friday while the rest of the competitors will be in action starting at 9:30 AM on Saturday. 

Stanford Invitational

Six De Anza Athletes qualified to compete in one of the biggest track meets in the western United States featuring numerous schools from all over the United States.  For the Men, on the first day of competition Kevin Rutledge qualified in two events, the long jump and high jump.  In the long jump Rutledge jumped a season best 22'3.75" to move into 9th place on the schools all-time list.  This jump was good enough to earn a 3rd place finish in the collegiate division.  Kevin Rutledge and Greg Talley both competed in the high jump with both making their first height and then missing the second height.  Marko Vatavuk ran a personal best in the 400 hurdles with a 55.23 and placed him 9th on the all-time school list.  This performance also moved him into the lead in the conference standings in this event.  Derek White competed in the evening in the discus competition and place in twelveth place.  For the women, the lone entrant was Erica Arenas in the 400 running a season best of 57.98 moving her to 9th place in school history.  Arenas won her heat easily and actually ran faster than the entire heat before her who was all seeded higher than her.  Arenas was the fastest freshman also in the event.  On the second day, of competition Ka Wai Ng competed in the Invitational Division Triple Jump.  Although he did not hit near his best jump and fouled on 5 out of 6 attempts, he was good enough for 8th place in the meet. 

UC Davis Classic

With the start of Finals Week looming next week for the De Anza athletes a tired and leg weary group of about half of the total team members traveled to UC Davis for the UC Davis Classic.  The teams may have not had the performances they were looking for but still had some bright spots.  For the De Anza Men, who finished 6th out of 14 teams competing, the top 8 finishers were: Josh Tran in the 400 (50.47) finishing in 8th place, Clifford Crum (15:40.31) and Abiy Gebrekristos (15:51.89) finishing in 5th and 7th respectively in the 5000, David Rios 5th in the 3000 Steeplechase (10:27.84), the "A" and "B" teams finishing 3rd and 4th in the 4x100.  The 4x400 team finishing in 4th place, Greg Talley (6'2") finished in 6th place in the high jump, Kevin Rutledge (21'11.5") and Mike Borg (21'6") finished in 4th and 5th respectively in the long jump, Ka Wai Ng finished in 5th in the triple jump, and Derek White finished in 5th place in the discus.  For the women: Erica Arenas finished in 5th place in the 400 (58.96), Kirsti Whitmyre finished in 7th place in the 5000 (20:34.59), Lisa Oliveras in the 400 hurdles finished in 8th (1:11.39), and Kim Kilgroe and Rebekah Phillips finished in 5th and 7th respectively in the 3000 Steeplechase were the only top 8 finishers for the Lady Dons.  This upcoming week will feature 6 men and 1 woman traveling to the Stanford Invitational to compete on Friday and Saturday, while the rest of the team will compete at Chabot College on the same days.    

CSM Flex Meet and Aggie Open

The De Anza Men's and Women's Track Teams dealt with a difficult week, but still managed some very good performances.  With a gas leak and some chemical problems at the school pool early in the week, rehab runners had problems finishing their workouts, plus the closure of the lockerrooms and part of the track on Wednesday, causing a stressful and improvised set of workouts this week.  The team also split up for the first time this year with part of the team competing in the CSM Flex Day Invitational at the College of San Mateo on Thursday and Friday.  This also marked the first time 3 athletes competed in a multi event in their track careers.  Kevin Rutledge ended up finishing in second place in the Decathlon and ended up with a qualifying performance into the Northern California Championships.  On the ladies side freshmen Lisa Oliveras and Alyssa Sialaris, finished in 3rd and 4th place respectively in the Heptathlon and both qualified for the Northern California Championships as well.  Oliveras had season bests in 6 of the individual events.  Along with the first day of the multi events on Thursday the hammer throwers and discus throwers also competed.  In the women's hammer throw, Jamila McIntosh threw a lifetime best and finished in 6th place with a throw of 127'3".  On the Men's, Derek White also finished in 6th place in the hammer throw.  The weather played a big part in the performances of the Dons this week after Thursday.  On friday the last three track events as well as the high jump and pole vault were cancelled due to the rain and wind.    Despite the rain and wind and cold a couple athletes shown through on Friday.  Meghan Thomas won against a small field of athletes in the 400 hurdles and placed in the 4x100 and 100 hurdles to be the leading point scorer for the Women's team who finished in 3rd place out of 11 teams despite not having 7 of their top athletes competing in this meet.  On the men's side of the CSM meet, the team did not place as well finishing 8th out of 11 teams, but were without 12 of their team members.  Peter Chew had his best meet as a collegiate athlete finishing in 4th place in the 800 and 5th place in the 1500 meter runs to lead the Dons.  Larry Ngo also was the only brave soul in the 400 hurdles to run and finished in first getting his first ever college victory by beating only the elements on the track.  On Saturday, the weather looked a little more promising with the blue skies and sun shinning at UC Davis for the Aggie Open, but an extremely cold and strong wind throughout the day ended up hampering performances.  For the women the day started off with three girls running the 5000, and seeing all three run season bests.  Freshman Rebekah Phillips ran a lifetime best of 18:58.08 to finish in 7th place both in the meet and in school history.  Kirsti Whitmyre ran a 19:37, followed closely by Kim Kilgroe running a 19:42.  Erica Arenas continued to show well in her freshman year by finishing in 6th place in the 400 despite running in a slower heat.  Alyssa Sialaris was the only other scoring girl by placing in 7th place in the Javelin throw on her third straight day of competition.  For the men, despite two poor handoffs and running one of the slowest times of the year the men's 4x100 team of Earnest Sims, Josh Tran, Mychal Ladd, and Troy Wright finished 8th.  Ka Wai Ng continued to climb the school record book in the triple jump with a leap of 47'5", which was good enough for second place in this extremely tough meet.  Derek White had a 7th place finish in the Discus to give De Anza a another top 8 finish in the field events with Ng.  The last event on the track was the 4x400 meter run for the men and temperatures were dropping fast, but the quartet of Josh Tran, Mychal Ladd, Scott Blomquist and Ted Green managed to finish in third place to help the team walk away with a good finish to the meet.  The team will again be heading to UC Davis who will be hosting a replacement meet for the cancelled Sacramento State Hornet Invitational this coming Saturday.  The meet is scheduled to begin at 9:30 AM.

Kim Duyst Invitational

The best weather of the year created a number of season's best and career bests at the Kim Duyst Invitational held at CSU-Stanislaus.  With 16 women's teams and 15 men's teams competing at the meet as well as some top unnattached athletes.  The field and the weather created the best conditions of the year for the De Anza Track Teams to compete in.  In unofficial scoring of the meet the women finished 6th place with 50 team points, the second highest point total of the junior colleges at the meet.  The meet started off with one of the biggest highlights on the day in the first race of the day, the 3000 Steeplechase.  Kim Kilgroe finished 5th overall but beat her own school record time by a tenth of a second.  Kilgroe ran a 12:13.18, which is faster than she ran in the state meet last year when she placed 7th place as a freshman.  Rebekah Phillips finished in 6th place behind Kilgroe with a time of 12:44.74, to place her second behind Kilgroe on the All-Time Top Ten List at De Anza.  The women's 4x100 Relay ran a season best 52.04 to finish in 6th place, despite a really bad first baton exchange that was barely within the exchange zone.  Erica Arenas improved her 10th fastest All-Time 400 meter mark by over a second running a 58.56 to finish second in the meet.  Arenas also ran seasons best 26.02 in the 200 to finish in 6th place in the meet.  To continue her very impressive day, Erica also led off the 8th place 4x400 relay with a 58.1 split.  In the field events, the ladies continued to look strong.  Kelly Thom jumped into school history with the 8th longest jump in school history (16'11.25") to finish 3rd overall in the women's long jump.  Thom also finished in a 3-way tie for 4th place in the high jump with a jump of 5'0".  The high jump continues to be a team strength as Lisa Oliveras and Kim Kilgroe finished in 7th and 8th place respectively.  In the triple jump, Sabrina Prijatel jumped a career best 33'1.75" to finish in 6th place followed by Thom in 7th place.  In the Javelin, Alyssa Sialaris finished in 5th place, despite not having one of her best outings.  Sialaris however, did get a season best in the shot put to finish in 8th place with a throw of 37'3".  Jamila McIntosh rounded out the place winners for the women with two 8th place finishes in the Discus and Hammer Throws.  The men's team was led by Ka Wai Ng, who for the second straight week jumped over 46' in the triple jump to finish in second place for the Dons.  The men ended up scoring 36 points to finish in 7th place and 3rd among junior colleges.  The steeplechase proved to be a good start for the men's team also as Daniel Brody finished in 6th place (10:22.88) and David Rios finished in 8th place (10:30.25) to both achieve the NorCal Provisional Qualifying mark.  They are the first two athletes to do this 20 years.  Greg Talley recorded a season best in the triple jump also to finish in 6th place with a hop, skip and a jump of 42'6.25".  Marko Vatavuk vaulted to a season best in the pole vault (13'5.25") to finish in third place in the meet.  In a darkness shortened discus competition Derek White finished in 4th place, among collegiate competitors with a throw of 135'6".  Kevin Rutledge bettered his mark in the Javelin to 157'8" to finish in 6th place for the Dons.  The only other top 6 finish for the Dons was the team of Mychal Ladd, Josh Tran, Cliff Crum and Ted Green, who finished in 6th place in the 4x400 relay with a season best time of 3:25.77.  The Dons have a busy week coming up ahead as the team will split up for the first time this season.  On Thursday and Friday some of the team will be competing in the Flex Day Invitational at the College of San Mateo, while another group of athletes will be heading to UC Davis for the Aggie Open on Saturday.

Stanislaus Open

The De Anza Men and Women for the second straight week boarded a charter bus at 6 AM to compete on a Saturday.  This meet was the first time the teams would be tested against Four-Year Schools and some of the better junior college programs in Northern California.  Both teams finished 3rd in the unofficial team scoring out of 12 mens teams and 9 womens teams at the meet.  The women's team finished out of second place by just a small half point margain to Fresno Pacific University.  CSU Stanislaus was the women's team champion of the meet.  On the men's side it wasn't as close but still finished in a solid third place.  Modesto JC was the meet champions followed by CSU Stanislaus.  The lone champion on the day was on the women's side in the triple jump with Chelsea Langeland jumping into school history with the 7th best triple jump in school history.  Three of second place finishes were recorded on the day for the ladies.  In the 400, Erica Arenas ran the 10th best 400 in school history to take the runner up position.  Jamila McIntosh finished in second place the Hammer Throw and Discus.  For the men.  Ka Wai Ng jumped the 4th longest Triple Jump in school history missing the 47' barrier by a quarter of an inch and finished in second place.  Kevin Rutledge added a couple of runner-up performances in the long jump and javelin throw to give the Dons a total of three second place finishes on the day.  The Dons will be back in action early in the morning again at CSU Stanislaus in the Kim Duyst Invitational on March 6th. 

2010 Run for Lupus Meet

The 2010 Run for Lupus All-Comers Meet was held at Delta College in Stockton, California on Feb. 20th.  Although it was a smaller meet with all of the proceeds being donated to charity.  The De Anza Runner's had some very good performances.  Although official results have yet to be available De anza won most of the the events contested on the day.  Some of the highlights on the day were Alyssa Sialaris winning both the Shot Put and Discus for the women.  Derek White won the men's Discus competition.  Jumping for the Dons proved very successful for the Dons too as Kelly Thom won the women's Long Jump and High Jump, while Greg Talley won the Men's High Jump.  Chelsea Langeland edged out teammate Lisa Oliveras for the Pole Vault victory.  On the track, the 5000 meter run started off the day with a 1-2-3 sweep for the men and the women.  The Men were led by Cliff Crum followed closely by Abiy Gebrekristos, and Daniel Brody.  For the women, Rebekah Phillips was the winner followed by Kim Kilgroe and Luisa Westley who all met the NorCal standard for qualification.  Some of the other winners on the day; where the men's and women's 4x100 relays and 4x400 relays, Vicky Leung in the 100m Hurdles, and Marko Vatavuk in the 110HH.  As soon as final official results are posted they will be posted on our schedule page.   

2009 Women's Track and Field Team receives honor

The 2009 Women's track team had a tremendous season on the track but was recently named as an All-State Academic Team this past week for the hard work the team did in the classroom during their record breaking season.  They were one of three teams from De Anza to receive this honor for the 2008-2009 Academic year, along with Men's Cross Country and Women's Tennis.

2010 Track Season Is Underway at Coast Conference Preview

The 2010 De Anza Track season got underway Friday at San Jose City College for the Coast Conference Preview meet.  This year due to the state taking two meets away from all schools on their schedules the Preview Meet also hosted Merced and Fresno Colleges from the CVC conference due to the fact they did not have enough teams and meets in their region.  So there was 11 women's teams competing and 10 men's teams at the meet that began at 11 in the morning and finished under the lights.  After a record setting season last year the Don's picked up where they left off in many ways.  A total of 21 athletes from De Anza met the NorCal Championships provisional mark and one automatic qualifying mark, giving them an excellent chance of competing into the month of May.  The new Dons team also only took one week to make its mark on the All-Time Top 10 List.  Kevin Rutledge, a newcomer who transfered to De Anza from Cal Poly SLO, hit an automatic qualifying mark of 6'7" in the High Jump.  This mark was also good enough to be the lone individual champion on the day for the men and place him 10th all-time in school history in the event.  Rutledge also added a second place finish in the long jump with a jump of 21'1" and was a member of the 5th place 4x400 "A Team" Relay. Other top finishers for the men who in unofficial scoring placed 5th as a team included:  Josh Tran finishing 4th place in the 800 (2:00.85), Abiy Gebrekristos 4th place in the 1500 (4:15.55) and 7th place in the 3000 (9:09.48), Daniel Brody 6th in the 1500 (4:20.97), Clifford Crum 4th in the 3000 (9:04.67), Marko Vatavuk 2nd in Pole Vault (13') and 5th in 110 High Hurdles (16.40), Greg Talley 5th in High Jump (6'), Scott Blomquist 8th in the High Jump (5'10"), Ka Wai Ng  2nd in the Triple Jump (43'5"), Ted Green 7th in the Triple Jump (42'1"), Derek White 4th in Discus (137'8") and 8th in the Hammer Throw (103'10"), 4x400 "A Team" (Mychal Ladd, Victor Martinez, Tran, and Rutledge) finished 5th with a time of 3:28.34 and the "B Team" (Green, Blomquist, Mike Borg, and Vatavuk) with a time of 3:30.77 finished 7th.  On the Women's side the the ladies squeezed out a tight victory over the guest school Fresno in the unofficial scoring 174.5 to 170 to take the championship.  The Lady Dons earned a bulk of their points in the field events to lead them to the victory.  The throwing events provided 8 place winners for the women.  With freshman Alyssa Sialaris leading the way with a championship in the Shot Put (37' 1/2"), a 2nd in Discus (113'8"), a 2nd in Javelin (108'7") and an 8th place finish in the Hammer Throw.  She also added a runner-up finish in the High Jump (4' 7 3/4") after she finished her awesome performances in the throws.  Sophomore Jamila McIntosh was close behind to Sialaris in her performances with a 2nd in the Hammer Throw (108'), 3rd in the Shot Put (31'10") and a 3rd in the Discus (110').  Also in the Javelin, Sabrina Prijatel finished in 3rd place with a throw of 84'4".  Prijatel also added a 7th place in the Long Jump (14'10") and a 5th place in the High Jump (4'4").  Along with Sialaris and Prijatel a couple other women had successful day in the jumps.  Kelly Thom, a transfer from UC Davis, added a second individual championship for the Lady Dons in High Jump (4'10")  and added a 3rd in Triple Jump (31'8") and 5th in Long Jump (15'11).  Lisa Oliveras helped in the Lady Dons High Jump dominance finishing in 4th place with the same height as Sialaris but lost on number of misses.  Oliveras also finished 4th in the Pole Vault (6'6") and ran to a 4th place finish in the 400 hurdles (1:03.02) and a 6th in the 100 hurdles (18.77).  Kim Kilgroe was right behind Oliveras in the Pole Vault, matching her height but having one more miss.  Kilgroe also ran to a second place finish in the 1500 with a time of 5:18.24 and third in the 3000 with a time of 11:31.31.  Some of the running Dons saw some very good perfomances on the track along with the field event point bonanza.  Rebekah Phillips finished 2nd in the 3000 (11:25.56) and 3rd in the 1500 (5:19.09).  Luisa Westley finished 5th in the 1500 squeeking under the NorCal Provisional mark with a 5:31.33.  In the 800, a pair of freshman Christina Pando and Erica Arenas finished 2nd and 3rd with times of 2:34.66 and 2:36.42.  Vicky Leung was the last individual placewinner on the track for De Anza with a 7th place finish in the 100 hurdles (19.31), and a 7th place finish in the 400 hurdles as well.  The Lady Dons also added some relay points with a 5th place finish in the 4x100 relay (Christina Huynh, Aly Rajah, Leung and Prijatel), a 4th place finish by the "A Team" (Arenas, Oliveras, Thom, and Pando) with a time of 4:27.41 and a 5th place finish by the "B Team" (Rajah, Prijatel, Kirsti Whitmyre, and Westley).  The Dons will travel next Saturday to Delta College in Stockton, California to compete in the 2010 Run for Lupus Benefit All-Comers Meet, where the procedes from this meet will be donated to Lupus Research.  

2009

Student Athlete Receives Special Recognition

The Evergreen Valley High School Graduate was named the student-athlete of the year for this past year in a recent awards ceremony.  She was a two time state qualifier (last year in the hammer throw and this year in the shot put).

Also Congratulations to Whitnee Garrett (Track and Field) for being named on the
honorable mention list for the

2009 NATYCAA SCHOLAR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR AWARD

NATYCAA stands for National Alliance of Two-Year College Athletic Administrators.
This is the first time a De Anza student-athlete has received recognition
from this National group.

Congratulations Whitnee!

California Community College State Championships Day 2

Day 2 of the state championships was hot!  With temperatures in the 90's many athletes had trouble handling the heat and kept the training staffs busy.  However, many of the Dons rose to the occasion and had very good performances.  Marko Vatavuk finished the second day of the decathalon with 5569 points good enough for tenth place in the state meet but places him 7th in school history for the event.  Marko had personal bests for the season in 6 of the 10 events. Kim Kilgroe started the ladies day with a medal and some points.  Kim lowered her school record for the third time this season and finished in 7th place in the 3000 steeplechase (12:13.28).  Daniel Chen just missed getting an All-American certificate (finishing in the top 4) by placing fifth with a personal best and second best in school history mark in the 110 HH.  Chen ran a 14.87 and placed 5th to earn a medal. The next race on the track was the big one for the Lady Don. Not one but two members of the womens team earned All-American honors in the 400.  Deirdra Pettigrue and Marshey Brown passed a number of girls coming up the final 100 meters of the race with strong finishes for Pettigrue to finish as the state runner-up and Brown right behind her in third as the top finishing freshman in the race.  Pettigrue ran a 55.80 which was just off her top time of the season.  Brown ran a 55.39, which was a lifetime personal best and moved her to 6th on the all-time top 10 list in school history.  The 5000 meter run became a race of survival with women and men not finishing the race due to the extreme heat.  Kirsti Whitmyre ran well enough to earn her second medal of the meet finishing in 8th place.  Jessica Paranthaman was 9th just out of the medals and Kim Chew finished in 11th.  Clifford Crum thought he missed his chance at a medal finishing in 9th place on the track but due to the 8th place finisher weaving up the last 100 trying to block his final sprint Crum was awarded 8th place due to a DQ of the other runner for illegally blocking him running to the finish line.  The final race of the day was the men's 4x400 who last week were discouraged finishing in 5th place and thinking they had failed to qualify to the state championships.  However, they did qualify due to being the fastest fifth place time in both regionals and entered as the ninth team in the state meet.  The four members of the relay Mychal Ladd, Don Gaspar, Kwame Agyemang, and Kevin Gonzales made the most of their second opportunity with all of them running under 50 seconds in their splits and running a season best 3:18.24 and finishing in sixth place earning a medal and 3 team points.  Other finishes for the Dons was Ka Wai Ng 11th in the Triple Jump, Michael Barrios 11th in the pole vault, Jessica Paranthaman 10th in the 1500, and Whitnee Garrett 11th in the shot put.  Overall for the two days the Dons had 17 men and women competing and 11 of them took home a medal and scored points at the state meet.  The women finished with 19 points and finished in 16th place out approximately 60 schools in California with track programs and the men finished tied for 23rd place with 11 team points.  With numerous freshman on the team and a good outlook in the recruiting process the Track program looks to continue to build on its huge success this season.

California Community College State Championships Day 1

The first day of the California State Championships at the College of San Mateo saw both men and women's teams get on the scoreboard.  The women's 10000 was a struggle for Kirsti Whitmyre who is stuggling with some nagging injuries at the end of the season but she was strong enough to hold on for 7th place and earn her first medal and score two team points for the women's team.  On the men's side Rene Stephan only needed one big throw to earn his first state medal after missing the finals in the Shot Put last year, Stephan launched a big PR 179'5" on his very first throw, which held up through six rounds to earn him a medal in sixth place and three team points for the Dons.  Marko Vatavuk also finished the first day of the Decathalon with a first day point PR and a seasons best in the long jump and 400.  Marko will be back on the track at 9AM for Day 2.  The rest of the Dons competing will begin with the steeplechase at 12:45.

NorCal Championships Day 2

Day 2 of the NorCal Championships was held at Diablo Valley College May 8th.  The day started early for a few of the athletes but well for one in particular.  Rene Stephan started his day off with a sixth place finish (168'5") in the men's javelin finals to start the day off for the Dons and their historic day.  Whitnee Garrett then came back after failing to make a return trip to the state meet in the women's hammer throw, she regrouped and threw a lifetime best and 8th best throw in school history (38'10.5") in the shot put to capture third place and spot in the state championships.  The field events continued to be strong for the Dons with Michael Barrios capturing 6th place and a ticket to the state meet in the Pole Vault for the second straight year (13'3.5") and Ka Wai Ng jumped a season best (46'2.5") to crack the top ten in school history with the tenth best jump in school history and finish sixth in the meet to extend his season a week longer.  The first evening meet for the Dons on the track began with Kim Kilgroe just missing a NorCal Championship when she finished second in the women's steeplechase (12:19.10) and will be moving on to the final week of the season.  The men's and women's 4x100 teams both had slight bobbles of the baton, which cost them their right to move on both finishing 5th with only the top four teams advancing.  The women had three women in the 1500 meter final and two ran fast enough to qualify to the state championships.  Jessica Paranthaman finished in fourth place with a 4:59.79 and Kirsti Whitmyre was close behind in fifth with a 5:00.23.  Next on the track was Daniel Chen who the week before had sprained his ankle the night before the prelims and was unsure if he would even run.  He did and barely made finals and was going to be in lane eight for the finals.  However, a week of rehab and rest did Chen good cause he finished second with the second fastest time in school history (14.89) and suprised a field who weren't ready for a guy in lane eight to run so well and he will move on to the state championships.  Chen had already previously qualified in the Decathlon but will scratch to focus on the hurdles.  Next up was the women's 400 meter race which featured two De Anza athletes.  Both girls ran outstanding times and season bests with Deirdra Pettigrue finishing in second place with a 55.70 and Marshey Brown finishing in fourth with a 56.72 and both will move on.  Brown and Pettigrue also came back and finished in 6th and 7th respectively in the 200 to score team points but will not be moving on in that event.  Marko Vatavuk who was already a qualifier in the Decathlon for the state meet came close to advancing in the men's 400 hurdles running a PR in 55.86 and finishing in 5th place.  The women again had three competitors in the finals of the women's 5000 and two running times good enough to advance them on to next week.  Kirsti Whitmyre finished in second place with a time of 18:45.55 and Jessica Paranthaman finished in fourth place with a 19:56.89.  Kim Chew also finished in 8th place in the event to pick up another team point, and qualified as an alternate to the State Championships.  The men's 5000 had two competitors in it and provided probably the biggest suprise of the night for the Dons.  Clifford Crum was seeded in 13th place coming into the competition but ran a PR 15:37.34 to finish with a medal in fourth place and move onto the state meet next week.  The final event of the night again ended in heartbreak for the Dons.  The men's and women's teams both again completed something rare to see.  Both finishing in 5th place meaning all four relays which were contested finished with De Anza in 5th place and only the top four earning automatic advancement.   However, after the Southern California Regional some good news finally came the Dons way as the Men's 4x400 relay team received the wild card entry into the state meet by beating the fourth and fifth fastest finishers in the south with their time.  When all the dust has settled so far the Men's and Women's teams will be sending 16 athletes to the state meet (10 men and 6 women) with the possibility of one more with scratches still taking place until Tuesday of this week.  They will be competing in 14 individual events and one relay.  This is one of if not the largest combined group of athletes to ever qualify for the state meet in school history.  For the women in the team competition they finished in 5th place their highest finish since a 5th place finish in 2003, scoring 73 points one of the highest point totals ever in school history.  The men finished in 10th place the highest finish for the men in over 20 years, finishing with a total of 48 points again one of the highest totals for the men in over 20 years.  The state meet begins next Friday at the College of San Mateo with the Men's Decathlon, Men's Javelin and Women's 10000 at 9:00 AM.  All other events will be contested on Saturday also beginning at 9:00AM.

NorCal Championships Day 1

The first day of the NorCal Championships began much like the season started off.  It was wet and raining the whole meet and De Anza athletes overcame the elements to have a very good day one of the NorCal Championships at Diablo Valley College.  In the only final of the day the 10K for the women.  Kirsti Whitmyre became the first female to qualify for the state championships by breaking her own school record and breaking 40 minutes to become the NorCal champion.  Whitmyre once again lapped everyone in the race passing the second place girl to put her a lap down as she finished her 25th lap.  On the guys side the men came up a little short in their bid for state, however Clifford Crum did have a PR and moved up to 9th all-time on the De Anza school history list with a 33:48.  All other events contested on the day were to qualify to next weeks NorCal Finals again to be held at DVC next Friday.  On the lady's side most of the team is still alive moving on to the finals.  The Lady Dons will be sending two girls to the finals in the 200 and 400 meter dashes as Marshey Brown and Deirdra Pettigrue will be advancing in both events.  Three ladies will be competing in the 1500 with Kirsti Whitmyre, Jessica Paranthaman and Kim Chew all advancing.  Both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays will also be advancing for the ladies on the track.  Also advancing straight to next week will be the trio of Whitmyre, Paranthaman, and Chew in the 5000 and Kim Kilgroe, Yasamin Yazdi, Maura Villanueva and Vy Huynh in the 3000 Steeplechase.  In the field events Whitnee Garrett will be advancing in the Hammer Throw and Shot Put and Kim Kilgroe will be advancing in the High Jump.  On the men's side both relays will be advancing to the finals with the 4x100 breaking the school record for the third meet in a row with a 41.51.  Marko Vatavuk advanced in the 400 hurdles and Daniel Chen advanced in the 110HH.  Abiy Gebrekristos and Clifford Crum will be competing in the 5000 in the final individual event on the track that will be a final.  In the field events the men had an excellent day.  Michael Barrios will be advancing in the Pole Vault in an attempt to qualify for state a second year in a row.  Rene Stephan had a huge day in the throws advancing in all 4 throwing events to the finals and bettering his mark in the Hammer Throw to 150'11 a nine foot PR bettering his third place all-time performance.  Ka Wai Ng and Ted Green will also be competing in the triple jump finals.  In all 26 male and female athletes will be on the track again next week in the NorCal Finals.  Field events will begin at 11:30 AM and running events will begin at 4:45.

Coast Conference Championships

De Anza Men's and Women's Teams both finished in second place finishing just short of winning both Champoinships.  The men's team scored 155 point behind Hartnell College who had 201 and ahead of City College of San Francisco.  The men had 3 championships overall.  To go with Michael Barrios' Pole Vault championship on Wednesday the 4x100 relay team of Earnest Sims, Charles Hudson, Kwame Agyemang, and Kevin Gonzales broke their own school record with a time of 41.57 and nudged out CCSF.  The time ranks De Anza in 7th on the latest state rankings in this event.  Daniel Chen ran a personal best into a headwind in the 110HH with a time of 15.07 and winning a conference championship.  The time moves Chen up to 4th in school history.  The men scored points in every event in the meet.  On the women's side, the women scored and amazing 205 points but fell short to Laney College who scored 251.5 points.  It was basically a two team meet with Hartnell College finishing in third place with 82.5 points.  Kirsti Whitmyre added two more championships to her 10000 meter title on Saturday by winning the 1500 and 5000 beating teammate Jessica Paranthaman who in both races.  Whitmyre also added a 5th place finish in the 800 to complete her busy week.  The other championship in the women's meet was Kim Kilgroe who finished beating her own school record with a time of 12:13.47, which makes her the leader in Northern California in the lastest rankings.  Both teams had numerous outstanding performances and I invite you to please look on our schedule page and click on the Coast Conference Championships to view the rest of the results.  Fifteen women and sixteen men have qualified for the Northern California Championships, one of the largest groups in school history.  The NorCal Championships will begin next Friday at Diablo Valley College at 11AM and conclude the following Friday again at Diablo Valley College starting at 1PM.  The top qualifiers at DVC will advance to the California Community College Championships to be held at the College of San Mateo May 15th and 16th.

Day 1 Coast Conference Championships

Day 1 saw many great performances for the Dons and Lady Dons.  On the women's side of the competition the De Anza women have the first day lead in the team competition with a 41-37 lead over Laney College with 5 events completed in the overall conference competition.  Kim Kilgroe ended up picking up a second place in the pole vault for the Lady Dons and Marshey Brown started the day off with a 3rd place in the long jump with a seasons best and 7th best jump in school history with a leap of 17'5".  Jamila McIntosh came in with a 3rd place in the Hammer Throw and 7th place in the Javelin for a strong first day showing in the throws.  The Ladies big points on the day came in the 10000 meter run.  Kirsti Whitmyre captured the first Coast Conference Championship for the team with her victory coasting to an easy victory lapping the field and pacing her teammates finishing with a time of 41:42.56.  Jessica Paranthaman placed 4th and moved from 10th on the All-Time list for De Anza to 6th with a lifetime PR of almost 5 minutes running a 44:11.05.  Next in was Kim Chew with the 7th fastest time on the De Anza All-Time list with a 46:12.37.  Maura Villanueva ran a lifetime best breaking 50 minutes for the first time in her life with a 49:44.99 to finish 8th in the meet.  In preliminary competition Marshey Brown and Deirdra Pettigrue both advanced in the 200 and Meghan Thomas ran a season best time in the 400 hurdles to qualify for Saturday's Finals.  Thomas and Vicky Leung also ran in the only other women's preliminary, the 100 meter dash.  Both girls ran season bests and Thomas bettered her NorCal provisional mark by almost half a second but both missed out on the finals.  On the Men's side thru four events scored (the Men's Hammer Official Results were not posted yet) De Anza is two points behind (44-42) Hartnell College.  The Dons were led by Michael Barrios who captured his second Coast Conference Championship in the Pole Vault winning with a vault of 13'5".  Marko Vatavuk came in 3rd place and was followed by teammates Trevor Addison and Daniel Chen who finished 6th and 7th places.  Other place winners were Michael Borg finishing 3rd in the Long Jump with a season best leap of 20'11.5".  Rene Stephan had a very big day with season bests in the Hammer Throw and Javelin Throw.  Stephan started the day placing 2nd in the Javelin with a toss of 172'5" placing him 7th in school history.  He followed that performance with a 3rd place in the Hammer Throw but his official distance had not been published yet.  His toss is estimated to put him in 3rd in school history in the event when the official results come out.  In the 10000 all three of the De Anza athletes have been struggling with illness all week but Abiy Gebrekristos and Cliff Crum ran well enough to place in 5th and 6th place.  In preliminary events, the Dons did very well.  In the 100 Kevin Gonzales ran the 5th fastest time in school history (10.85) to advance to Saturday's final.  Kwame Agyemang will join Gonzales with time that would place him in 11th (10.90) just off the schools best list.  Charlie Hudson just missed the finals placing 10th but did run a season best 11.00 moving him up the standings in Northern California.  In the 200 Gonzales and Agyemang also advanced to Saturday's final.  In the 400 Don Gaspar and Mychal Ladd advanced into the finals.  The 800 saw Luis Nunez run a season best to qualify easily into the finals and Cliff Crum ran a time good enough to qualify to Saturday in the 1500.  In the 110H and 400H, Daniel Chen and Marko Vatavuk will be advancing.  This means the Dons will be represented in every event this Saturday at the College of San Mateo in the Coast Conference Championship Finals.

NorCal Multi's

Over the past two days three De Anza athletes competed in their first Decathlon and Heptathlon.  The results were very good for the two men who competed.  Both freshman, Daniel Chen and Marko Vatavuk both became the first two athletes on the 2009 team to qualify for the 2009 California Community College State Track and Field Championships.  The two finished 5th (Chen) and 6th (Vatavuk) taking the last two spots among the field to qualify for the state meet.  Both had several PR's on the day to earn their births.  Chen finished the day with 5449 and Vatavuk survived the 1500 to hold onto the 6th spot by 17 points with his total of 5367.  On the women's side Kim Kilgroe finished in 9th place and just missed the scoring positions in the meet but did have personal bests in the 100 Hurdles, Shot Put, Javelin, Long Jump, 200 and 800.  The high jump was the only event Kilgroe did not have a PR in.  Kilgroe's total for the two days was 3160.  Kilgroe will have several more opportunities to qualify for the state meet since she is ranked 3rd in NorCal in the 3000 Steeplechase and also qualified in 7 individual events for the NorCal Championships to take place the first two Friday's in May.  All three of these athletes will be in action again next Wednesday at the College of San Mateo for the Coast Confernce Trials.

Woody Wilson

Thirty-one athletes woke up very early Saturday morning to head to UC Davis for the Woody Wilson Invitational.  The record books and NorCal marks weren't as plentiful as they had been in the past but the Dons did change one school record in a big way.  The team of Earnest Sims, Charles Hudson, Kwame Agyemang, and Kevin Gonzales joined together for the first time this season to break the 1994 4x100 record by .07 seconds.  The foursome ran a time of 41.61 to capture the record and the victory at the meet.  Gonzales and Agyemang also teamed up with Don Gaspar and Mychal Ladd on the 4x400 relay to record a season best and capture the other first place finish for the Dons at the meet in a time of 3:19.85.  Overall in the unofficial scoring the Men's team finished in 5th place out of the 15 college teams competing.  The Dons scored 60 points on the day.  On the women's side, the ladies scored 34 points and also place in 5th out of 17 women's teams competing.  UC Davis won both titles.  This was the last regular season meet of the year for the Dons.  Three athletes will be in action Tuesday and Wednesday at Santa Rosa Junior College to compete in the NorCal Multi Championships.  Marko Vatavuk and Daniel Chen will be competing in the Decathlon and Kim Kilgroe will be competing in the Heptathlon.  The top 6 finishers out of the 12 men and 11 women will earn a berth into the State Championships.  The rest of the Dons will take the week off to perpare for the Coast Conference Championships which will be held at the College of San Mateo.  The Coast Conference Championship prelims for running events, along with the Hammer Throw, Javelin, Pole Vault, Long Jump and 10000 meter run finals will be held Wednesday May 22 and the finals for all other events will be held Saturday May 25th.  It will be the final meet with the entire roster of Dons competing.

Ed Adams

The 2009 assault on the De Anza record book continued Friday and Saturday at Hartnell College competing in the Ed Adams Invitational.  Combined both men's and women's team put up 58 season's best marks.  The Men's team came up short in their bid for the team title by finishing tied for 3rd with host Hartnell College with 139 team points.  Fresno City College edged out Modesto by one point for the team title 162-161.  Kevin Gonzales finished the day with two first place finishes and two second place finishes on the day.  Gonzales led off the 4x100 relay to gold in a seasons best time of 41.91.  He then followed that up by winning the 100 in a race that came down to the thousandth of a second running a lifetime best of 10.95.  His next performance on the track didn't earn him gold but he did break his tie on the all-time school record list to now hold second place all by himself and become the second runner in school history to break the 22 second barrier with his 21.96.  He finished the day by anchoring the second place 4x400 relay team with with a 49.34 and help lower the teams season best time by over four seconds to a 3:22.47.  Kwame Agyemang also had a huge day.  Running on both relay teams with Gonzales, and having Personal Records in the 100 (11.05) placing 5th and the 200 (22.12) which was good enough for 7th place in school history and third in the meet.  The sprinters were not the only guys putting up good numbers.  Abiy Gebrekristos and Clifford Crum ran their first 10000 meter runs in their lives and came out with very impressive results.  Both of them ran times good enough to qualify them for the NorCal Championships, and both of them put their names on the school's all-time top 10 list.  They became the first people to crack this list in 16 years.  Abiy Gebrekristos had a time of 33:13.63, which placed him 4th in the meet, and 8th in school history.  Crum finished right behind him with a 5th place finish and placed 10th in school history.  Takahiro Shiriawa and Robert McClure also ran their first 10000 meter runs and placed 6th and 7th respectively among college runners.  Gebrekristos and Crum also came back to compete in the 5000 the following day.  Crum came out with another PR running 15:54.64 and finishing 2nd among college runners.  He was followed by Gebrekristos who finished 3rd.  Rene Stephan led the field events with 3 top eight finishes in his 4 throwing events and led off the 4x100 "B" team which finished in 3rd place overall.  Stephan threw seasons bests in the javelin (158') and discus (131').  The Women's team was not to be outdone by the guys this week.  The ladies finished in first place overall edging out Modesto 164-163 for the team title.  Marshey Brown came though with a big day for the Lady Dons with a first place finish in the Long Jump (16'4"), a season best 12.52 to finish second in the 100 which moved her up to 8th place all-time on the top 10 list, anchored the 4x100 relay to a season best time of 50.52 for a 3rd place finish, led off the 4x400 relay team that finished 4th and added a PR 4th place finish in the triple jump (34'3").  Brown was a part of 34 team points.  Making up for the loss of Deirdra Pettigrue after an injury in her first event of the day.  The distance runners again came through with big numbers.  Kirsti Whitmyre led a group of three girls who ran their first 10000 on friday night and did it in impressive fashion again.  Whitmyre ran a lap ahead of the second place finisher in the meet and broke the school record with a time of 40:22.58.  Kate Braham finished in 4th place in the meet and ran the 8th fastest time in school history with a time of 48:41.80 and Devin Powell finished in 5th place overall and missed the top 10 list by less than 5 seconds with a time of 49:04.45.  Whitmyre came back on Saturday to finish in 5th place in the 1500 on a little bit of spaghetti legs from the night before behind teammates Jessica Paranthaman who finished second (5:00.70) and Kim Chew (5:06.24) who finished 4th both PR's.  Kim Kilgroe also ran the 1500 finishing 8th place running a 5:26.25, which gives her a NorCal Provisional mark.  However, Whitmyre recovered well enough to come away with the 5000 victory later that day again cruising by herself with a 19:04.89.  Paranthaman finished 3rd among college runners in the 5000, followed by teammates Yasamin Yazdi (6th), Vy Huynh (7th) and Maura Villanueva (8th).  Huynh, Yazdi and Villanueva also scored big team points finishing 2nd-4th respectively in the 3000 steeplechase.  Villanueva running her first steeplechase became the 8th girl in school history to compete in the steeplechase.  In the 800 Paranthaman and Chew finished 1-2 overall with Paranthaman running a PR time of 2:25.10 to nudge Chew at the line for the victory.  In the throwing events the one-two punch of Whitnee Garrett and Jamila McIntosh came up with big points.  Garrett and McIntosh did not have their best throws in the Hammer throw but did finish 4th and 6th in the meet.  They then came back with much stronger performances in the shot and discus with both adding PR's in each event.  McIntosh finished in 3rd in the discus with a PR of 125'7" and Garrett missed the top 8 but did PR.  In the shot put, Garrett finished in third place with a toss of 35'4.5" and McIntosh was close behind in 5th place with a throw of 31'9".  The Don's have one more meet next weekend at UC Davis, the Woody Wilson Invitational next Saturday before the championship season begins.

Stanford Invitational

A group of 11 men and women made the trip to Palo Alto to compete in the Stanford Invitational on Friday and Saturday.  Although no Don finished in the Top 8 some season bests were had.  On the Women's side, two women were entered in the open 400.  Dierdra Pettigrue had a season best time of 56.78 to move up to 6th fastest all time on the Top 10 list.  A few heats later Marshey Brown had her season best almost winning her heat with a time of 57.77 to which moves her to 8th all time in school history.  On Saturday Brown and Pettigrue teamed with Kim Chew and Jessica Paranthaman to run a season best 4x400 relay by over 8 seconds with a time of 4:01.29.  For the men's team, Daniel Chen ran a season best of 15.22 in the prelims of the 110HH which moves him to 5th place all time in school history.  On Saturday Kevin Gonzales, ran the second fastest time in De Anza history in the 200 almost breaking the elusive 22 second barrier with a 22.01.  Over spring break the Dons will travel south for the first time to compete in the Ed Adams Invitational April 3rd and 4th at Hartnell College.  This will mark the first time in over a month the Dons team will compete at full strength again.

Bob Rush Invitational

The final split squad week occured with a large majority heading to the College of San Mateo for the 2009 Bob Rush Invitational.  It was also finals week for the Dons.  A sleep deprived and tired group still had some very nice performances.  On the women's side the women's 800 was the highlight of the meet.  Kim Chew finished in 3rd place and had a season best time of 2:25.81.  Jessica Paranthaman also PR'ed right behind her in 4th place with a 2:26.24, and Kirsti Whitmyre was close behind them in 6th place.  Kim Kilgroe and Meghan Thomas both PR'ed in the 100 hurdles finishing in 5th and 6th with 18.19 and 18.39 respectively.  Thomas scored again in the 400H finishing 5th despite hurting her knee on an awkward landing after the first hurdle and Vicky Leung finished in 7th place behind her.  Kilgroe also added two more fifth place finishes in the Pole Vault and High Jump.  Jamila McIntosh added a third place in the Discus with a Personal Best throw of 125'1".  On the guys side Mike Barrios cleared 14'1.25" in the pole vault to finish in second place.  The group of Earnest Sims, Mychal Ladd, Rene Stephan, and Ted Green who usually run on the 4x100 B team got their chance to shine and came in 4th place in the event as the A team in this meet.  Ladd and Green also teamed up with Marko Vatavuk, and Luis Nunez to finish 6th as the A team in the 4x400 relay.

Hornet Invitational

The Dons traveled north bright and early to Sacramento this past Saturday(3/21) to compete in the Hornet Invitational hosted by Sacramento State University.  Once again the level of competition was raised to a new level for the Dons.  With 29 schools competing from six different states and some of the nations best individuals competing the Dons turned in a very respectable performance.  In the unofficial scoring the women's team finished in 18th place out of 29 collegiate teams.  Three individuals scored top 8 finishes for the women's team.  Kirsti Whitmyre finished in 5th place among collegiate runners and 8th place overall in the 5000 meter standings.  She was the only community college runner in the fast heat of the 5000.  Jessica Paranthaman was the winner of the second heat running the 8th fastest time in school history, a 19:30.59.  Kim Kilgroe bested her own school record by a little over a second in the 3000 meter steeplechase finishing in 7th place in the meet.  Vy Huynh and Yasamin Yazdi also ran the steeplechase and finished with career bests to better their times on the All-Time Top 10 list at De Anza.  The final top 8 finish came in the 200 from Deirdra Pettigrue running a season best 25.41 which is good enough to improve her standing on the top 10 list now to 5th all-time, and placed her in 8th place in the meet.  Jamila McIntosh also bettered her standing in school history moving into 2nd place now in the women's hammer throw with a personal best 119'7".  For the men there was a bit more scoring.  The men had 7 Top 8 places in the meet.  In the unofficial scoring the men finished 14th out of 27 college teams in the meet.  Both relays were just off their season bests while missing a key member.  The 4x100 relay finished in seventh place and the 4x400 relay finished in 6th place overall in the meet.  Kevin Gonzales had a fantastic day not making the fast heat in either the 100 or the 200 meter dashes.  However, Kevin finished tied for 6th place among college runners in the 100 and 4th place overall in the 200 running close to season bests despite running into a headwind.  Daniel Chen also was a double place winner in both hurdle events.  In the 110HH Chen finished in 6th place from a slower heat, and came back to finish in 8th place in the 400 hurdles.  The final Top 8 finish on the day was Ka Wai Ng finishing in 8th place in the triple jump.  Abiy Gebrekristos did not place in the top 8 finishing 9th among college runners in the 5000 but he did run a season best 15:33.67 to become the first male athlete to earn an automatic qualiying time into the NorCal Championships in the 5000.  This time also qualifies him in the 10000 meter run for the NorCal Championships.  A busy week is ahead for the Dons.  With finals up for the student athletes the Dons will be juggling tests all week with practice and two meets coming up.  The Bob Rush state preview meet will be held Thursday at College of San Mateo all day.  Also up this week is one of the nations best early season meets, The Stanford Invitational.  The Dons qualified 6 individual events and one relay on the men's side and 2 individual events and one relay on the women's side.  These athletes will be competing both Friday and Saturday this week heading into spring break.

Aggie Open

A group of 20 athletes, who qualified, headed out early Saturday morning to spend the day at the UC Davis Aggie Open.  This meet easily represented the toughest competition the Dons have faced this year.  The Ladies had two girls who placed in the top 8 in this meet.  Kirsti Whitmyre continued her climb through the records of De Anza history finishing second place in the 5000 meter run as the only Junior College athlete in the field of 13 four-year school scholarship athletes.  The only girl who beat her was from the University of San Francisco.  Her time of 18:05.37 moved her up to the second fastest 5000 in school history.  Dierdra Pettigrue also was runner-up at the meet.  She finished second to a girl from Sacramento State University with a time of 58.11 which moves her up two spots to 7th All-Time on the Top Ten list.  Pettigrue also added a 6th place finish in the 200.  In the field events Jamila McIntosh and Whitnee Garrett were throwing for the second time this week and had PR's in all of their respective events they competed in.  Jamila McIntosh added almost 2 feet to her season best in the Discus and Whitnee Garrett threw her season bests in both the Shot Put and Hammer Throw.  For the Men the placing wasn't as high but more men contributed Top 8 performances in the meet.  Kevin Gonzales place in the top 8 in all three events he competed in.  He contributed an 8th place finish in the 100 and a 5th place finish in the 200.  Gonzales also led off the 4x100 team to a 5th place finish and a season best time of 42.12.  Charles Hudson, Kwame Agyemang, and Don Gaspar were the other members on the 4x100 team.  Daniel Chen added a fifth place finish in the 110HH just missing his season best into a stiff headwind.  Abiy Gebrekristos added two 8th place finishes in his high mileage day finishing 8th in both the 2 mile run and the 5000 meter run.  Ka Wai Ng was the final Top 8 finisher with an 8th place in the triple jump.  The Dons will again head north into what should be another step up on competition as they head to the Hornet Invitational hosted by Sacramento State University.

CSM Mini Meet

A scaled back group of De Anza athletes went to the College of San Mateo on Thursday (3/12) and competed against Fresno City, CSM, DVC, Marin and Santa Rosa.  The women's team finished 2nd in the meet behind Fresno City College without competing in any sprinting events.  Some of the good performances were freshman Meghan Thomas making her season hurdling debut and winning both hurdle events with NorCal Provisional Times.  She was also a member of the winning 4x400 relay.  Thomas accounted for all three of the Don's wins on the day.  Marshey Brown was runner-up in the Long and Triple Jumps.  It was Brown's first time ever triple jumping and she hit a NorCal Provisional Mark of 34'2" which was also good enough to move her into 6th All-Time in school history.  The Women's team had 7 either new or improved NorCal Provisional Marks.  Kim Kilgroe and Lauren Rosiles also improved their All-Time School Marks in the Pole Vault going 7'5.75" and 6'0" respectively, and Jamila McIntosh improved her 3rd best All-Time Hammer Throw mark by almost 4 feet.  For the Men's team last year's state qualifiers Rene Stephan and Michael Barrios led the Dons on the field with improved marks on the season.  Stephan hit the provisional mark in the Javelin with a throw of 153' in his runner-up performance.  Barrios had a lifetime PR with a Pole Vault of 14'1.25" in his runner-up performance in the vault.  The third and final NorCal mark improvement was Tim Stanislao improving is Triple Jump mark to 42'1.5".  A group of about 20 De Anza track athletes who qualified for the Aggie Open held a UC Davis will compete Saturday (3/14).

Gator Preview

As the sun came out for this track meet the De Anza Track teams put an assault out on the record books and the NorCal Qualifying list.  In what was the best weather the teams have performed in so far this season both the Men's and Women's teams responded well.  This was also the first meet of the year competing against 4-year schools and local track clubs and elite athletes.  Some teams may have been intimidated by the experience but the young Dons responded well with almost all of the athletes who competed having at least one season best mark.  Between the Men's and Women's teams the teams also 5 automatic qualifying marks and 20 provisional NorCal Qualifying marks.  The good conditions and the great competition to compete against helped pull the men and women to these excellent marks.  The All-Time De Anza Top Ten List was also rewritten for the 5th week in a row.  The women's 3000 meter steeplechase once again was reshuffled with a new person emerging at the top.  Freshman Kim Kilgroe competing in just her second lifetime steeplechase broke the school record by over 27 seconds with a time of 12:22.82.  She was actually competing against last years state qualifier and previous school record holder Angie Sandavol who now runs for Mills College and ended up finishing in 5th place and 4th among college athletes.  This was also an automatic qualifying mark to the NorCal Championships.  Behind her Lauren Rosiles moved up to 5th place on the All-Time List ahead of Vy Huynh who also competed.  Both of these two athletes also ran lifetime personal bests with NorCal provisional marks.  After the women's steeplechase David Rios finished 5th in the Men's Steeplechase with a personal best just missing the NorCal Provisional Mark.  Next on the track was the Men's 4x100 teams.  De Anza put three teams on the track and ended up finishing in first place edging out Chico State with a season best time of 42.62.  De Anza's "B" team would have placed in 3rd but was disqualified for a zone infraction but closely following them was the De Anza "C" team which did break the 44 second barrier and finished in 4th beating the "A" teams from Humboldt State, Santa Rosa and the UC Santa Cruz track club.  Next on the track was freshman Kirsti Whitmyre who is continuing her amazing season by finishing in third place out of 34 athletes in the 1500 and was the first collegiate athlete across the line in what is now the 7th best All-Time women's mark with a 4:53.83.  Jessica Paranthaman and Kim Chew also bettered their provisional marks and finishing as the 5th and 8th fastest college runners in the race.  In the Men's 1500 all six guys who competed ran a season best although no one was in the top 8 places in the race.  In the women's 100 Hurdles freshman Vicky Leung finished as the 6th fastest collegiate runner and bettered her provisional qualifying mark running a season best 18.58.  Next up was the Men's 110HH race Daniel Chen finished in second place overall running the 8th fastest ever De Anza 110HH race with his time of 15.49.  Rhoden Briones was the 8th place collegiate finisher in the race also running a PR.  In the women's 400 freshman Marshey Brown moved up the All-Time De Anza list with her NorCal automatic qualifying time of 58.49 which was good enough to be the second fastest college runner.  She was followed by Deirdra Pettigrue who finished in third place.  In the Men's 100 meter race Kevin Gonzales ran his first 100 of the season and finished in 6th place with a NorCal provisional mark of 11.01 into a slight headwind.  In the 400 hurdles Vicky Leung finished in 5th place with a season's best just missing the NorCal provisional mark.  In the Men's race Marko Vatavuk finished in 3rd place among college athletes bettering his provisional mark to 58.02.  Next on the track was the 200 meter dash with Pettigrue finishing as the top collegiate athlete with Brown finishing second both were slightly below their season's best times.  The Men's 200 was highlighted by three Dons finishing among the top 8 collegiate runners.  Kevin Gonzales was third with his season best NorCal provisional mark of 22.13, which was also good enough to move into 6th place on De Anza's All-Time List.  Don Gaspar came was next with a NorCal provisional mark of 22.59, followed by Charles Hudson who finished 8th among college participants.  As the sun started to set on the track the 5000 meter runners were taking the track.  Eight members of the women's team ran the 5000 and all eight ran a personal best.  Kirsti Whitmyre bettered her season best and moved up to 3rd on the All-Time List with her State Best time of 18:29.50, which also qualifies her for the NorCal 10000 meter run.  She was followed by Kim Chew, Jessica Paranthaman, and Kim Kilgroe who all ran NorCal Provisional Marks and now rank second, third and fifth respectively on the NorCal performance list this season behind Whitmyre.  Since the sun went down and the automatic timing device doesn't work in the dark the Men's 5000 was hand timed and results have not been made available yet but all seven guys running the race also ran a season best on the unofficial results.  The Men's 4x400 was cancelled due to darkness.  A couple of field events also saw improved perfomances.  Jamila McIntosh finished in 6th place, bettering her NorCal mark to 116'4".  Mike Barrios was in a tie for first at 12' in the pole vault when it was shut down due to darkness.  Ka Wai Ng finished in third place in the Men's Triple Jump with his season best provisional mark of 45'5.75".  He was followed by Tim Stanislao who finished in 7th and Ted Green in 8th among college jumpers.  The last field event place winner was Rene Stephan who finished 4th among college participants in the Javelin.  The De Anza runners have a busy week coming up with their first week of split squads.  Some of the athletes will be competing in the CSM Mini-Meet on Thursday while others will step up in competition level again by heading to UC Davis to compete in the Aggie Open on Saturday.

Maurice Compton Invitational

Once again the track teams competed in less than ideal weather conditions.  On a cold and very windy day overlooking the bay in Oakland at Merritt College, strong winds and cool temperatures were a major component in the scores and times on the day.  Although this meet wasn't officially scored, the Women's team would have finished second to Laney College and the Men would have tied for third with City College of San Francisco, behind Hartnell and Modesto Colleges out of the 14 Men's and Women's teams competing.  Some good performances were turned in despite the weather.  The Men's team did not win any events however, some top performances did occur with the tough competition.  Don Gaspar became the first member of the men's team to make De Anza's All-Time Top Ten list moving into 5th place on the 400m list running a 49.32.  Newcomer Ka Wai Ng earned third place in the Triple Jump with a jump of 44'7.5".  Some of the other medalists included Jeremy Lipp in the Steeplechase, Marko Vatavuk in the 400 Hurdles and Abiy Gebrekristos in the 5000 all placing 3rd in the meet.  On the Women's side of the competition the Lady Dons earned five individual victories on the day.  Three of those victories came on the track from Kirsti Whitmyre by completing the distance trifecta.  Whitmyre started the day winning the 1500 with a 5:05, then came from behind to win the 800 at the line in 2:28 and finished the day with her most impressive race of the day winning the 5000 in what is currently the fastest time run in the state with an 18:39.54.  Whitmyre lapped the entire field in the race and also moved up one slot on the All-Time list to the 5th fastest time in school history.  The other two victories came on the lower field outside the stadium for the ladies.  Whitnee Garrett won the Hammer Throw and Jamila McIntosh earned the victory in the Discus.  The other medalists on the day included: Jamila McIntosh third in the Hammer Throw, Marshey Brown third in the Long Jump, Jessica Paranthaman third in the 1500, Kim Chew third in the 800, Vicky Leung third in the 400 Hurdles, and the 4x100 relay also earned bronze.  Thuy-Vy Huynh did better her Steeplechase record mark and moved up to 5th on the All-Time list and earned a mark good enough to qualify for the NorCal Championships.  Marshey Brown also moved onto the All-Time list moving into 10th place on the 100 list.  The Dons will be in action again March 7th competing in the San Francisco State University Gator Preview, which begins at 9AM.

Santa Rosa Rotational

Mother Nature finally cooperated with the De Anza Track teams and provided a good early season afternoon of weather, and due to this nice change the De Anza Track teams responded in a big way.  The Women's continued their early season success in a big way.  The Women outscored the other five teams in the rotational's scores combined.  On the track in eleven running events De Anza won seven of them.  Deirdra Pettigrue continued her assault on the All-Time De Anza Top 10 list by winning the 100 and 200 with times that placed her 6th and 10th All-Time Respectively.  Kirsti Whitmyre continued her dominance of the long races on the track winning the 1500 and 3000.  Kim Kilgroe led a group of ladies in the first 3000 Steeplechase of the year winning the event in the second fastest time in school history.  Yasamin Yazdi and Lauren Rosiles finished the race and landed 5th and 7th All-time and Thuy-Vy Huynh actually finished in a personal best time but dropped from 4th to 6th on the list.  Kim Chew earned her first collegiate victory ever winning the 800 nudging out two other De Anza runners to sweep the top three spots.  The final victory of the meet on the track came in the 4x400 relay with the team of Marshey Brown, Chew, Jessica Paranthaman and Pettigrue.  Off the track after missing last weeks meet due to illness Whitnee Garrett came back strong winning two events the shot put and hammer throw.  With three meets done in the 2009 season the women have 26 NorCal provisional and automatic qualifying marks.  Unlike past weeks where the girls have stole the spotlight the Men's Team joined in the fun by also winning the rotational meet edging out Coast Conference Rival Hartnell in the team scoring and winning four events.  David Rios earned his first collegiate victory leading a pack of Dons through their first ever 3000 Steeplechase and started the Dons out with 28 team points right out of the gate.  Daniel Chen was the second victory for the Dons in the 400 hurdles.  Abiy Gebrekristos won the 3000 meter run edging out teammate Clifford Crum for his second victory of the season.  Finally in one of the most exciting races of the year so far, Don Gaspar got the baton in second place in the 4x400 relay but quickly passed Hartnell's anchor runner to seal the event and meet victory.  The men now have 15 provisional marks for the NorCal Championships.  The Dons will head to their first Invitational of the season when they travel next Saturday Feb. 28th to Oakland to compete in the first ever Maurice Compton Invite at Merritt College.  This should be a great meet with many of Northern California's best teams scheduled to compete.

Diablo Valley Rotational

The De Anza Track Teams were on the road in less than desireable weather conditions for a second week.  This week at Diablo Valley College the Dons participated in the 10 team NorCal Super Rotational with an ever changing weather pattern.  The day had a little bit of everything when it came to the weather.  The day started off a little overcast and cold, then it rained and delayed the field events for a short while, while the first couple running events were contested in the rain.  After the first shower ended the wind picked up and the sun came out for a bit.  But by the end of the meet the final three events were run in a cold downpour of rain again.  The Dons did overcome the bad conditions again for another good performance.  The Women lost to perrenial state powerhouse Sacramento City College by 1.5 points in the team scoring, and if it wasn't for a misinterpretation of the rules at the triple jump the Dons would have actually won the meet.  Some of the highlights of the the meet for the Lady Dons was once again winning five events.  The Lady Dons started the day off by getting the stick around the track in the 4x100 to get first place.  The 4x100 meter team was made up of Meghan Thomas, Tiffany Loi, Vicky Leung, and Lauren Rosiles.  Next up on the track was Kirsti Whitmyre holding off two tough competitors from College of Sequoias to take the 1500 meter title for the second meet in a row.  Her time of 4:59.28 was good enough to also earn an automatic qualifying time for the NorCal Championships.  Kim Chew finished 5th in the 1500 but did earn a provisional qualifying mark for NorCals in the event also.  The next winner on the track was Deirdra Pettigrue who captured the 400 meter race in a NorCal automatic qualifying mark of 58.95.  This mark also placed her 8th on the De Anza Top 10 list for the 400.  She was followed closely by Marshey Brown who finished 2nd and bettered her previous weeks provisional mark and moved into 10th all-time in the De Anza Record books.  Whitmyre came back onto the track for the 5000 in the downpour to win in a NorCal provisional time of 19:30.46, which was good enough for 6th best all-time in De Anza History.  The final win for the Lady Dons came with Marshey Brown, Kim Chew, Kim Kilgroe and Dierdra Pettigrue teaming up for victory in the 4x400.  A few other highlights of the meet were Jamila McIntosh moving up from 7th to 3rd all-time in the Hammer Throw, and Kim Kilgroe and Lauren Rosiles clearing 5'6" in the Pole Vault to become the 6th and 7th females in school history to clear a pole vault height.  On the Men's side of the meet, the Don's finished 3rd behind Sacramento City College and City College or San Francisco.  The Dons only managed one individual title on the day when Abiy Gebrekristos ran to a cold wet victory in his first collegiate 5000 meter run.  Gebrekristos ran fast enough to hit the provisional mark in the 5000.  Earlier that day Gebrekristos earned a provisional mark in the 1500.  Three other Dons earned NorCal provisional marks during the meet.  Rene Stephan hit the mark in the Hammer Throw, Michael Barrios will be headed back to NorCals in the Pole Vault again this season and Marko Vatavuk earned a qualifying mark in the 400 Hurdles.  The Dons will next compete at Santa Rosa Junior College in the second round of NorCal Rotational Meets on Friday Feb. 20th.

Coast Conference Preview Opens up 2009 Season

The 2009 track and field season got underway under very wet and miserable conditions.  The Coast Conference Preview Meet was held Friday (Feb. 6) at West Valley College in extremely wet and raining conditions.  Many events were cut short or not contested at all and the meet was filled with late scratches of athletes.  Most of lane one was underwater for the meet also.  The pole vault and 4x400 relays were not run at all in this meet.  Despite all of these horrible conditions.  The Dons had some bright spots during this gloomy day.  This meet was not officially scored however, if the meet were scored the Lady Dons would have easily outdistanced the field.  The Lady Dons had five event wins, seven NorCal provisional qualifying marks, and one all-time Top 10 De Anza performance.  Leading the Dons was Kirsti Whitmyre who picked up where she left off in the fall when she was Conference Runner-up in Cross Country.  Whitmyre led the Dons with two individual victories (1500, 3000) and a runner-up performance (800).  The other individual winners for the Dons was Marshey Brown (400), Deirdra Pettigrue (800), and Kim Kilgroe (High Jump).  Along with these girls who all reached provisional qualifying marks Whitnee Garrett (Hammer, Shot Put), and Jessica Paranthaman (1500) joined them with qualifying distances and time.  Jamila McIntosh also changed the De Anza Top 10 All-Time list on her first collegiate meet by landing in 7th on the Hammer Throw list.  On the Men's side of things if the meet were to be scored The Dons would have been a close runner-up to defending Coast Conference Champions Hartnell.  The Men's team was victorious in four events in the rain.  The relay team of Thompson Ly, Kevin Gonzales, Ted Green, and Don Gaspar started the day off by winning the 4x100 meter relay.  Three other individuals also collected wins in the meet.  Rene Stephan squeeked out a victory in the Discus by one inch.  Daniel Chen was victorious in his De Anza debut winning the 110HH and Tim Stanislao won the rain shortened Triple Jump with the one jump each competitor received before the event was stopped for safety reasons.  All of these events also hit provisional marks for the NorCal Championships in May.  The track teams will next compete next Friday Feb. 13th at Diablo Valley College in the NorCal Super Rotational ten team meet at 11AM.

2009 Track Season

The 2009 track season will kick off tomorrow at noon when the De Anza Dons travel to West Valley College for the Coast Conference Preview Meet.  With one of the largest teams in the schools history, the Dons look to improve on the giant steps made last year toward becoming one of the NorCal elite teams.  One the men's side the Dons are led by returning state qualifiers Rene Stephan (shot put) and Michael Barrios (pole vault).  With a large crop of newcomers including three NCAA Division I transfers it looks to be the strongest team from top to bottom in many years here at De Anza.  On the women's side Whitnee Garrett (Hammer) is the returning state qualifier.  The women's team also is seeing some of its biggest numbers ever at De Anza.  The women's team features six girls who led the women's cross country team to the state meet in the fall, along with several talented high school state qualifiers.  It looks to be an exciting year.  See our schedule and come support your Dons!

The 2008 Track Season

Coach Mattis joined the De Anza Track teams for his first season as the head coach of the Dons, and the Dons responded with one of their best track and field seasons in many years.  The De Anza Men finished in fourth place and the Women finished 3rd in the Coast Conference Championships.

Men's Season Highlights included:

• Darren Rous- Coast Conference Champion 800M, NorCal Runnerup 800M, 7th place State Championships 800M, California Junior College state 800M fastest time 2008
• Michael Barrios - Coast Conference Champion Pole Vault, 6th Place NorCal Pole Vault, State Qualifier Pole Vault
• Sean Alexander- 6th Place NorCal High Jump, State Qualifier High Jump
• Rene Stephan- 6th Place NorCal Shot Put, State Qualifier Shot Put
• NorCal Championship Finalists - 110HH, 800M, 4x400M Relay, High Jump, Pole Vault, Shot Put, Javelin
• Stanford Invitational Qualified Events - 4x100M Relay, 4x400M Relay, Long Jump, 400M Hurdles
• 11th Place NorCal Championships

Women's Season Highlights included:

• One Hundred Point Improvement in Team Points over previous year in Coast Conference Championships
• Cynthia Chaidez- Coast Conference Champion 800M, 1500M, 5000M; NorCal Champion 800M, 1500M, 2nd place 5000M; All-American 1500M 3rd place State Championships, 7th place State Championships 800M, 5000M State Qualifier
• Angie Sandoval- Coast Conference Champion 3000M Steeplechase, 10000M; 5th Place 10000M, 5th Place 3000M Steeplechase NorCal Championships; State Qualifier 3000M Steeplechase, 10000M, Broke School Record in 3000M Steeplechase
• Whitnee Garrett- 3rd place Hammer Throw NorCal Championships, State Qualifier Hammer Throw, Broke School Record in Hammer Throw
• NorCal Championship Finalist - 800M, 1500M, 5000M (2 entrants), 10000M, Hammer Throw, Shot Put
• 7th Place NorCal Championships