Juanita Webster, sophomore, has once again dominated the heptathlon events for Cerritos College defending a championship title, and breaking yet another school record.

Webster along with teammates Breanna Curry and Michaela Banyi cracked the top-5 at the Southern California Heptathlon Championship on Tuesday, April 4- Wednesday, April 5.

In total the team had eight competitors participate in the championship earning it a total of 23 team points toward the Southern California team championship.

Director of Track and Field Christopher Richardson said, “This was probably the deepest talent pool of heptathletes Southern California has offered in years,but our young [heptathletes] stepped up to the plate and competed hard.”

All the while, the women’s track team as a whole competed in the Cerritos College Invitational on Friday, April 7 where it would have four first place finishes and one school record broken too.

The heptathlon championship began with the 100-meter High Hurdles, where Webster would take the top-spot with a 13.99 seconds finish giving her an early lead in the meet.

Banyi would follow suit finishing fourth place in the event with a time of 15.28 seconds, and Curry finishing fifth with a time 15.57 seconds.

The finishes would set the tempo for the day for the trio finishing in the top-five in at least two individual events each.

Curry would finish second in four of the seven of events leaving her in fourth place with the 2767 points at the end of Day 1.

Curry said that her main goal for the meet was to earn points for the team so that it can SoCal regionals, and eventually state.

Banyi would finish the first day just behind Curry in fifth place after scoring a total of 2715 points at the end of the first competition day. She earned a second place finish in shot put with a distance of 10.47 meters and a third place finish in the 800 meters timing out at 2:29.97 minutes.

Webster would start off Day 1 with record breaking performances in the high jump and javelin throw. Her 1.75 meter jump would break past three Falcon alumni athletes for the second best height in the school’s history. While her javelin throw would put in the fourth best spot in the school’s history with a distance of 41.32 meters.

These success, along two more first place performances, would leave her in the top-spot at the end of Day 1.

By the end of day 2 the Falcons Curry would finish with a total of 4591 points good for third place, Banyi finished fourth with 4415 points and Webster would finish as the Southern California State Champion with a total of 5471 points breaking the school record of 5399 points which she set in in a previous meet.

That total number of points was just shy of Webster’s desired mark of 5500 points, which she expressed was her target number prior to the event starting.

Richardson said, “Juanita is a special young woman who has a bright future in this sport. She is up for any challenge that is placed in front of her which makes her a scary competitor.”

Two days later the team, as a whole, competed at the Cerritos College Invitational. Once again records were broken this time by sophomore athlete Crystal Rodriguez.

Her 48.20 meter performance in the hammer throw earned her third place in the event, and fifth overall in the school’s history. She also would finish first in the discus throw with a distance of 44.47 meters, and had another third place finish this time in the shot put marking a distance of 12.15 meters.

Amber Hart, freshman, would also have top-5 worthy performances in the event. She finished just two places behind Rodriguez, in fifth, with a distance of 43.08 meters; and third place finish in the discus event with a 40.68 meter throw.

The Falcons’ relay teams also found their footing on the track claiming two of the four first place finishes for the day.

According to Curry the 400-meter relay team needed to work on the fluidity of the hand-offs, but the 1600-meter in which she was the lead leg did well.

“I thought [4×400 meter] did great,” she said. “I was the lead leg, so I really felt that my energy [kickstarted] my other teammates to help them perform really well too.”

Performing first in the day was the team’s 400-meter relay team which was comprised of Curry; sophomore Lilian Ebanks; freshman Kymberlynn Jackson; and sophomore Meka Story. The relay would take the top-spot posting a time of 46.66 seconds.

The 1600-meter relay team, which included Curry, Webster, Jackson and Story; they would follow up with another first place performance marking a time of 3:52.88 minutes.

Both Jackson and Story would have individual success at the meet. Jackson would compete in the 400-meter race, and finish fourth, posting a time of 58.51 seconds; while Story would finish third in the 200-meter with a time of 25.2 seconds.

Other successes on the day long distance runner Rebecca Harris placed fourth in the 1500-meter race, and a fifth place finish in the 800-meters; Amani Briggs and Banyi tied for fifth in the high jump; Webster placing second in the long jump; Ebanks placed fourth in the triple jump; and Alejandra Guzman placed fifth in the javelin event.

Concluding the day’s successes was Jelani Minix who brought home one of the four first place finishes of the day. She brought home the top spot in the high jump, marking a height of 1.55 meters, and a fifth place finish in the triple jump.

After all the successes Richardson expressed, “I feel the success thus far is a culmination of hard work and the outstanding talent that was recruited to our program.”

The team will now continue to look forward to the postseason meets which will include:

• South Coast Conference Championships
• SoCal Championships
• CCCAA State Championships

But first the team will compete, in part, at the Mt. San Antonio Relays and the the Cal State Long Beach Invitational, on Saturday April 15.

As far as the record breaking performances he said, “There is definitely more to come.”