SANTA BARBARA, Calif.-  The Royals had a great day at their last indoor track meet of the season as they competed in the GSAC Indoor Invite Saturday hosted by Westmont College and set four new school records.

The day started with the men setting the school record in the 4 x 800m relay, and finishing second overall.  The quartet was made up of Keith Williams (FR/Las Vegas, NV), Andrew Valle (JR/Whittier, CA), Anthony Ramos (JR/Rialto, CA), and Ethan Escamilla (FR).  The men battled William Jessup for the second-place finish with Ethan Escamilla holding off a late charge by William Jessup's anchor. 

Escamilla ran a PR in the mile, improving to 5:11.50 and finishing in ninth place.

Andrew Nowak (FR/Temecula, CA) ran 23.84 in the 200m finishing in fourth place overall and Daniel Galindo (JR/Corona, CA) ran 25.98 finishing in seventh.

The men also set a new school record in the 4 x 400m relay, with Joseph Clemons (FR/Santa Clarita, CA), Keith Williams, Andrew Valle, and Anthony Ramos.  The team finished in fourth place with a time of 3:47.13.

Sophia Ruesga (SO/Fullerton, CA) set a school record in the 60m dash by winning her heat with a time of 8.21 and finished fifth overall. Ruesga also finished fifth in the 200m in a time of 27.45 and Sofia Gutierrez (FR/Placentia, CA) ran her first race of the season running the 200m in a time of 28.89 finishing in eighth place. Freshman, Aurora Cuoto just missed her PR after taking a couple of weeks off due to a knee injury.  She battled to run 11:27.29 just four seconds off her PR to finish sixth overall in the 200m.  

The race of the day was the men's 3000m. The Royals had three men in the race with Keith Williams coming in with the fastest seed time. All eyes were on Williams who was the favorite to win the race. As the 7 1/2 lap race began a Westmont runner decide the pace was too slow so he took the lead and opened up on the front pack by almost 50m. The rest of the field slowly moved up on the Westmont runner and with 900m the real racing began. Vanguard's, Caleb Myers, took command of the race with a strong move to take over the lead, and Williams and unattached runner Tristan Guerrero followed in 2nd and 3rd place. With only 400m left to go in the race, Williams was still back about 40m behind Myers, and with the race win looking out of reach Williams started his lethal kick and started to close on Myers. With 150m to go Williams and Myers were shoulder to shoulder with Guerrero still close behind and once on to the straightaway, all three runners were in an all-out sprint. Williams edged out Myers for the win with all three runners breaking the coveted 9:00 barrier.  Williams finished in a time of 8:57.76, breaking his own school record.

The other two Royal men in the race were Anthony Ramos who finished in seventh at 9:34.51 and Andrew Valle finishing in eighth with a time of 9:42.92.  

The Royals will take a few weeks off from competing to get ready for the Outdoor Track & Field season starting March 6th at Fresno Pacific for the Central California Invitational.