Despite competing without freshman sprinting sensation Ariana Wright (Westminster HS) and sophomore distance runner Tracy Bowling (Taft HS/Sacramento State University), the Cerritos College women's track and field team relied on their dominant throwers to accumulate enough team points to win the Southern California Championship on Saturday at San Diego Mesa College. The Falcons finished with 75 team points to edge out second place Glendale College (70 team points), with 59 of those points coming in the four throwing events. The six qualifiers in the throws events will be joined by freshman high jumper Mariah Harris (Leuzinger HS) at the State Championships, which Cerritos will be hosting on Friday and Saturday.

Wright, who was injured at the Beach Invitational several weeks ago, did run the anchor of the 400-meter relay race, but the Falcons came in sixth place in 48.23 and missed out on qualifying for the state championships by .07 seconds. Bowling was scheduled to run in the 5000 meters, but was unable to compete due to an injury.

In the throws events, Cerritos was led by sophomore Priscilla Gardner (Mission Viejo HS), who qualified in four events including the discus where her distance of 48.30 meters earned her the Southern California Championship. Also qualifying in the discus were freshman Larrisha Fields (Lakewood HS), who came in second place at 42.97 meters, freshman Tiffany Gray (El Dorado HS), the fifth place finisher at 39.77 meters and freshman Tuki Sauvao (Artesia HS), who qualified with her throw of 35.93 meters, good for seventh place. Gardner will also be competing in the state championships in the shot put, as her distance of 12.75 meters was good for third place, with Gray in fifth place at 12.44 meters. Sophomore Destini Poplar (Bellflower HS) did come in eighth place at 11.87 meters, but did not advance.