Story and photos by Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

College of the Canyons freshman Takaira Beard earned an individual conference title in the women’s high jump with a leap of 1.54m during the Western State Conference Prelims hosted by Santa Monica College on Friday.

The meet crowned conference champions in both the men’s and women’s high jump, long jump, shot put, discus, and 10,000m events. All other events served as qualifying for next week’s WSC Championships at Ventura College.

Beard was the lone conference champion for Canyons on the day. Her performance garnered the Cougars 10 points in the team standings. The Valencia High product also placed third in the long jump with a personal best mark of 5.24m. That earned the Cougars an additional six points.

Megan Carbajal placed fourth in the long jump (5.10m) and eighth in the high jump (1.39m) to give Canyons six more points.

Stephanie Martinez also added four points with her fifth-place finish in the 10,000m (41:55.97).

That gave Canyons 26 on the day, placing the women’s team third behind Glendale (27) and Santa Barbara City College (29) heading into the championship meet.

COC’s men’s team scored points in two events and will enter the WSC championships with a ninth-place team rank.

Marcel Sylvester was the top finisher for the Cougars, taking third place and earning six points in the high jump after clearing a height of 1.93m.

Garrett Noltemeyer also earned a point by finishing seventh in the 10,000m (34:10.39).

A full list of event results is included here.

Canyons now look to prep for next week’s WSC Championships on Friday, April 27. Events are scheduled to begin at noon.

Stay up to date on all this season’s action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.