SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - On Saturday, February 12th the Indoor Track & Field men's and women's teams traveled up to Westmont to compete in the Sunshine Invitational and had a successful outing walking away with five new school records.
Leading the way on the men's side was Joseph Clemons (SO/Val Verde, CA) breaking his own 600m school record set in 2020 by running 1:22.95 and finishing 3rd overall. Clemons ran a very tough race and shaved off seven-tenths of a second to improve his mark. Michael Ventura (NA) broke the 200m school record by running 23.17 in the 200m and winning his heat and broke Pablo Perez (SR/Fullerton, CA)'s 200m school record of 23.28 which was set in 2018. Next, was Belzasar Haro running 4:53.69 to set a new school record in the mile, and to cap off the day was the men's 4x400m relay which consisted of Michael Ventura, Christopher Aguilar (FR/Santa Ana, CA), Diego Pineda (FR/Corona, CA), and Joseph Clemons. The quartet showed toughness and grit fighting off a hard-charging William Jessup team to finish 3rd in their heat and 4th overall to run 3:30.65 which set a new school record.
On the Women's side, Emma Timmermans (FR/Santa Ana, CA), Arlene Magana (FR/Corcoran, CA), and Aurora Couto (SO/Winchester, CA) raced the mile and the 3000m. Emma ran almost the exact same time as two weeks ago running 5:18.35 and finishing in 3rd place. Arlene Magana ran 5:48.45 finishing in 3rd in her heat and 10th overall. Aurora Couto ran 5:56.05 and finished 5th place in her heat and 15th overall. All three Royals came back to race the 3000m, Emma Timmermans ran 10:37.29 breaking the previous school record of 10:59.77 set by Salina Garcia in 2018 and Timmermans finished 5th overall. Aurora Couto ran 11:39.77 finishing in 13th place and Magana ran 12:02.07 finishing in 18th place.
"Overall, the entire team improved from two weeks ago. The coaching staff is very optimistic about the next few weeks of competition," Head Coach Dan Whittington.
