Former Cerritos College students, Ameer Webb and Karlin Stewart have both recently won national titles at their universities.

Webb went on to Texas A&M University and won the NCAA Indoor Championship as a junior.

In the 200 meter race he won the gold medal with a time of 20.57 seconds.

Previously, as a sophomore Webb had won the State Championship.

Taking home the National Championship in the long jump event, Stewart aided his indoor track and field team at Grand Canyon University, winning the NCAA Division II Championship.

Director of track and field, Doug Wells, commented on how he felt hearing that the students are moving on to universities saying, “We (the team) were pretty excited that they both got scholarships and moved on because of course they built up their eligibility with us”

Webb attended Tustin High School which is where Wells first spotted him and started timing his runs. He won 100 and 200 meters at that meet.

With the help of a Cerritos College assistant football coach who contacted Webb who came into contact with Wells and started the process of recruiting him to the Cerritos track team.

Stewart transferred from Cuyamaca College in San Diego to Cerritos.

He made it known to the track team that he wanted to run. The track team worked for a year training him before he was eligible.

Wells reflects on his first encounters with the two former Falcons by saying, “They are both really good individuals, we never had a problem.

“Karlin was a team captain and Webb holds our school records in both the 100 and 200 meters.

“They both have natural talent. They were both hard workers.

“When they came out here to train it was serious business. They trained hard and they worked hard” Wells added.

Tied with Oklahoma’s Mookie Salaam, Webb’s time equals the 10th fastest collegiate time ever; his best time coming into the meet was 20.26.

Webb spoke with the Texas A&M Information Team about reaching that spot.

“I’m very excited with that time. I didn’t think I was going to go that fast,” Webb said, “It wasn’t what I was expecting, but I’m glad I did it. I’m a bit mad I missed the school record, but it gives me something to chase next season.

“I just listened to Coach Henry who told me to go out and just kill it in the first round. Getting the best lane for the final was the best thing I could do in the prelim so I went out as hard as I can.”

Webb almost broke the school record at his university of 20.38 in the preliminaries in the 200 meter by reaching a time of 20.39; the current record was put into place in 2010.

“This laid out perfectly for what I want to accomplish this season. Running 20.39 is so close to my outdoor personal run of 20.33. So, it just opens up a whole new world of times I can run outdoors.” Webb said.

Stewart’s distance for his long jump win was 7.53 meters; this distance provided his team 10 out of the 54 points when winning the championship.

This feat gave Stewart an All-American status.

Another accomplishment for him was placing ninth in the triple jump with a distance of 14.51 this jump, among the other accomplishments of the team helped give Grand Canyon its second national title.

Some advice that Wells gave Stewart and Webb when they were about to leave for their universities was “you knew they were going to train hard and work hard the main thing is go to class.

Do the right thing and surround yourself with good people and make sure you get that degree.”

Wells spoke about how they interacted with the other members of the track team saying there was never a problem they were always team players.

Only on videotape has Wells seen Webb or Stewart run for the universities, but will see Webb run this Saturday.