Riverside Women's Track & Field Bests Field for 12th Straight Conference Championship

Riverside City College won its 19^th overall, 12^th consecutive Orange Empire Conference Championship Friday, running away with 344 points. Orange Coast College followed in second with 221 points, with Fullerton College (60 points) and Saddleback College (42 points) taking third and fourth, respectively. Golden West College secured 16 points and Santa Ana College scored four points.

RCC's Savannah Ganter got the meet going with a win in the 3K steeplechase, posting a time of 11 minutes, 38.27 seconds. Dakota Zamarripa followed her teammate in 11:55.35, while Saddleback's Casey Jones took second in 12:10.01.

Riverside swept the 10K with Nadia Munoz crossing the finish line in 39:25.32 for the championship. Ganter followed in second (40:42.18), while Zamarripa rounded out the top-three with a time of 43:48.02.

Tiana Burgess won the 100-meter hurdles, posting a time of 14.44 seconds, while fellow Tiger Kiana Ikeda took second in 16.26 seconds.

Jolene Ruth Lavaki won the 100-meter dash in 12.13 seconds, followed by Burgess in second at 12.61 seconds. Lavaki also won the 200-meter dash, clocking in at 24.87 seconds.

Riverside won both relay races, with the 4x100 team clocking in at 47.50 seconds and the 4x400 team posting a time of 3:57.41.

Freshman Tiger Joace Warrior won the long jump after crossing 5.52 meters. Burgess followed in 5.40 meters for second place but won the triple jump with a mark of 11.33 meters.

Riverside's Rylee Blanton won the hammer throw with a toss of 47.43 meters on her second try, while OCC's Abigail Gavrilovic took second with a mark of 45.05 meters.

OCC's Annabelle Low won the heptathlon with 3,377 points, while fellow Pirate Kimberly Renteria followed with 2,356 points.

In an exciting 1500-meter race, Liberty Miller (OCC) just edged out Saddleback's Danna Ibarra Canales, with just .04 seconds separating the two. Miller clocked in at 5:02.26, while Ibarra Canales crossed the finish line in 5:02.30.

Miller also took home the championship in the 5K, this time beating her competition by six seconds (18:24.82).

The Pirates saw Esmeray Demirbas take first in the 400-meter with a time of 56.04 seconds. She grabbed her second individual title with a first-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles (1:04.00) and picked up another crown in the high jump with a mark of 1.63 meters.

Orange Coast went one-two in the pole vault, with Paityn Wilkins grabbing the win with a mark of 2.95 meters. Kiarah Palacio followed at 2.55 meters. Wilkins also picked up the win in the javelin with a mark of 31.15 meters.

Gavrilovic gave the Pirates another victory in the shot put, tossing a best championship throw of 11.70 meters on her fifth attempt. She followed with a win in the discus, hurling a mark of 41.86 meters.

Saddleback's Ibarra Canales took the crown in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:20.77.

Release by Sammi Wellman, Riverside