Courtesy COC Sports Information

The College of the Canyons women’s track & field team has been crowned Western State Conference (WSC) Champions for the first time in school history after a runaway first place finish at the WSC Championships held April 24  at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC).

The Cougars scored 190 points to outpace second place Bakersfield (139) and third place West L.A. (115).

Meanwhile, the men’s team finished in second place with a score of 128 to fall just short of host SBCC at 138. West L.A again finished in third place with a score of 124.

With its second place finish the COC men’s team falls just short of winning back-to-back track and field conference championships.

“The strength of this year’s team lies within each and every member of our program,” said COC track & field head coach Lindie Kane.

“The women’s team remained focused the entire competition and proved unconquerable,” added Kane. “And although the men’s team fell just short of winning consecutive conference titles, it was a another great day for COC track & field.”

In all, the men’s and women’s team combined to win six individual conference championships and set three school records at the event.

Individual women’s event champions for COC included Mikala Fairchild in the 1500m (4:39.85), Dominique Dowell in the 10,000m (40:02.69) and Jada Selexman in the 400h (1:05.15).

In addition, Dowell and Fairchild both established school records with their first place finishes.

COC freshman Amanda DeJesus also established a new school record with her time of 12:20.15 in the 3,000m steeplechase.

On the men’s side Sike Azu-Irondi ran to a first place finish in the 100m (10.84), while Ethan Walker took the 800m (1:56.55) and 10,000m (32:08.21) events

Walker had a tremendous all around day of competition for the Cougars, also finishing in second place in both the 1,500m (4:03.08) and 5,000m (15:15:09).

The COC track & field program will next compete at the SoCal Championship Preliminaries on Saturday, May 2.