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Several PCC track and field athletes will compete for state championships after qualifying in the South Coast Prelims and Finals last week at Cerritos College.

Several Lancer athletes made it to the conference finals and one finished at the top of the podium.

“There’s [Chris] Miranda in the pole vaults, Shuo Yang in the high jump, Julia Sambvani in the hurdles,” said Crespo, mentioning some of the athletes that made it to finals. “Alex won. He’s conference champion.”

With a time of 46.91, Alexander McElwee placed first overall for the men’s 400-meter dash. A longtime favorite for sprints, the freshman also placed second in the men’s 200-meter dash.

Other athletes who did well were Khaleel Muhammad, who placed second in the men’s 400-meter hurdles, Yang, who placed second in the men’s high jump, and Sambvani, who placed third in the women’s 400-meter hurdles.

The men’s team was ranked fifth overall and the women were rated as sixth-best.

With the South Coast Championships now behind them, the track and field team is now setting their sights on the Southern California Championships.

“I think the ones where we can see some huge gains for Southern California prelims would be Julia Sambvani for the 400 meter hurdles and, I would probably say, Nathan [Guzman] in the 10,000,” said Crespo.

Crespo has confidence in his athletes.

“The rest of them are ready to do what they’ve been doing,” he said.

Crespo is especially sure that his relay team will place in the Southern California finals.

“We run alternates for the 4-by-1 and the 4-by-4 because we automatically qualify for the finals already,” said Crespo. “Then we’ll be putting in the real 4-by-4, which will be Anthony Carter, [Vincent] Ogbehi, Alex [Maldonado], and Muhammad.”

The Southern California Prelims and Championships will also be held at Cerritos’ Falcon Field for the next two Saturday afternoons.

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