Westmont Men’s and Women’s Track and Field hosted their final Golden State Athletic Conference Championships this week in Santa Barbara, where the Warriors experienced great success in the Montecito sunshine.
As teams, both the men and the women finished in second place, with the men compiling 194 points, and the women compiling 180. The men from The Master’s won the meet with 238 points, while the Vanguard women won with 266.
Individually, the Warriors took home several GSAC Championship titles, and also saw multiple Warriors achieve NAIA A-Standard marks. Per usual, the meet would not have felt complete without a headline or two from Zola Sokhela, who this time around won a pair of GSAC Championships.
Sokhela won the title in the men’s 400 meter run with a time of 48.76, and also won the title in the 1500, which is an event that the junior has won a national championship in before. Gearing up to try and do so again, Sokhela ran another NAIA A-Standard time of 3:51.00 to win the event.
“The 1500 was a difficult task today,” shared Sokhela. “It felt like there were about eight Master’s guys out there, and that can be tough to run against a pack who can run together and make it tough to get around them. Tactically, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go.
“It was a challenge, but it could have been a lot harder than it was. What they did was take it out hard, and really, they did the work for me. At that point, I just had to hold pace knowing I’d be able to make the last move.”
Sokhela continued, “You have to celebrate every victory. Downplaying success isn’t respecting yourself, or respecting your team, or your coaches. Every single win, whether it’s a national championship or a local meet, it means a lot.
“At the same time, you need to be able to move on quickly and not dwell on it. Still, you have to celebrate every single one.”
Sokhela was not the only Warrior to achieve a national qualifying mark in the 1500, as senior Adam King also ran an A-Standard time of 3:52.83, just ahead of the 3:53.00 cutoff mark.
“The 1500 was honestly harder than I thought it was going to be,” admitted King. “The field was stacked, and it was a pretty quick turnaround between the 1500 and 800. On the line I was aware that my legs were tired, but I knew I just had to go with the pace and see what happens.”
Coming in just behind King in the 1500 was sophomore Jack Vanden Heuvel, who ran a B-Standard time of 3:53.63. Vanden Heuvel also collected a first-place medal in the meet, when he won the 800 meter run with a time of 1:54.37.
Another Warrior to achieve an NAIA A-Standard mark was Narindra Rafidimalala, who won the long jump with an automatic qualifying mark of 7.30m. Rafidimalala, who also won the men’s triple jump (14.05m), will be competing at the NAIA National Championships for the first time in his career next month.
Also winning championships for the men were Zander Von Stade, who won the 200 meter dash with a time of 21.88, and the men’s 4×400 relay team, who completed the race in 3:20.43. The GSAC Champion relay team consisted of Ben Bodine, Von Stade, King, and Vanden Heuvel.
On the women’s side, Abigail Hundley won the conference title in the 3000 meter steeplechase, winning the event with a time of 11:34.65.
“It was awesome,” said Hundley of the steeplechase. “It was my second time ever competing in the steeplechase, so it was a highlight to jump into that race and come away with a good outcome.
“Last year in practice we jumped over some water barriers, and I thought it was something I could handle. I was supposed to try it last year, but then got sick at the meet I was supposed to compete at, so we waited until this season to give it a go. I first tried it out two weekends ago and it worked out well, so we figured we should try it out at GSAC. I’m glad we did.”
Lily Sween, who will be competing at Outdoor Nationals in the Heptathlon, won the high jump with a clearance of 1.63m, and Abby Rumohr, who will be competing in the pole vault at Outdoor Nationals, won her main event with a clearance of 3.65m.
Rounding out Westmont’s notable performances was the women’s 4×400 relay team, who ran a B-Standard time of 3:56.27. The second-place relay team consisted of McKenna Phillips, Jaiden Rodrigues, Charlotte Williams, and Siena Keck.
On May 24, Westmont’s best will begin competition in the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships in Marian, Indiana.
Jacob Norling is the sports information assistant at Westmont College.
email: sports@newspress.com
