CLAREMONT, Calif. — Melissa Cerrillos successfully defended her steeplechase title to lead the La Verne women's track and field team on the first day of the 2017 SCIAC Championships on Friday at Strehle Track.
Cerrillos, who has been getting faster by the race, completed the 3,000-meter race in a school-record time of 11 minutes, 2.19 seconds to win the event.
The Leopards added points in field events as Taylor Schulze finished third in the pole vault with a clearance of 3.52m (11-06.50) and Catalina Lee Kim placed seventh in the long jump with a leap of 5.19m (17-00.50).
All track events with the exception of the steeplechase and the 10,000m were preliminaries for finals on Saturday.
Tiahna Gillon posted season-best times in the 100m and the 200m to qualify for the finals in both events. She took the fifth seed in both with times of 12.43 in the 100m and 25.66 in the 200m. Freshman Jade Griffin was right behind Gillon in the 200m at 25.87 and also qualified for the final.
Carmen Sandoval qualified for the 400m with a personal record time of 58.87.
The Leopards are back in action tomorrow, starting with field events at 2 p.m. Running events start at 3:30 p.m.
Women - Team Rankings - 7 Events Scored
===============================================================================
1) Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 97 2) Occidental 40.50
3) Redlands 38 4) Cal Lutheran 37.50
5) Pomona-Pitzer 37 6) La Verne 19
7) Whittier 4