Adam Aguirre placed first in the Southern California championship on Saturday in Riverside.

By his side were a couple freshman that were not intimidated by the experience of the other athletes in the meet as they placed high in rankings and gave Cerritos College the third place spot.

Freshman Thomas Philips Cheval ran a decathlon for Cerritos College. Saturday tested Cheval as he originally was planning on competing in the four by four event by head coach Christopher Richardson thought otherwise for the athlete.

“Coach said, ‘let’s focus on doing the dec,’ so he knows what’s best,” Cheval said.

Scoring high for a for being a freshman is great feeling according to Cheval.

“I wasn’t expecting myself to do decathalon,” Cheval said. “But it turns out that this is the event for me.”

Cheval will be competing in the state championships.

Richardson was very pleased with the leadership skills freshman like Cheval displayed at the meet.

“Overall I think everyone stepped up and did really well,” Richardson said. “It’s special to have some freshman do some special things like Thomas.”

Adam Aguirre also made a splash at the meet as he placed first in the high jump event and will also be competing at the state championship.

“I jumped my new personal best, 72.25 meters, its a pretty big jump for junior college,” Aguirre said. “Usually that’s division one jump right there.”

Having signed a letter of intent to joining University of Mississippi in the near future, Aguirre was very pleased a jump with that sort of height graced him at the meet.

According to Aguirre, the high jump is not a sport of just physical strength.

“High jump is more mental than it is physical,” Aguirre said. “But staying in a rhythm and having focus is really the key.”