Bakersfield College javelin thrower Cooper Thompson threw a distance of 208 feet, 2 inches and placed first at the Southern California preliminaries May 2 at Mt. San Antionio College to qualify for the California Community College Athletic Association State Track and Field Championships.

At the Western State Conference championships on April 25 at Memorial Stadium, Thompson broke his own record as he threw 208-6 and placed first.

During the WSC prelims, April 28 at Ventura, Thompson broke the BC record (193-3), set by Jason Fasst in 1997 as Thompson threw a distance of 202-7 and placed first.

Cooper talked about breaking BC’s record on the road and then his own at Memorial Stadium.

“It’s crazy. It was kind of out of nowhere. I had thrown 180 and then all of a sudden, my 202 came. I knew I could do it again, but I didn’t know really know how I did it. I had no idea that it was the record though.”

In heat one of the men’s 800-meter run, BC’s Cesar Mireles finished fourth and qualified for the state championships. Mireles’ times was 1 minute, 56 seconds and 30 milliseconds. Mireles also finished third in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:02.23.

BC’s Kevin Norwood jumped a distance 23-4.5 in the long jump and placed fourth to qualify.

Renegade runner Ashley Colbert finished fifth in the women’s 100-meter run and finished with a time of 12.67 to qualify for state.

BC runner Emilley Leming finished sixth overall in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 12:10.3 to qualify.

BC sophomore pole vaulter Holly Moseley-Raymond tied for fifth, with a height of 10-3 and qualified for state. Moseley-Raymond placed second April 25 at Memorial Stadium with a height of 9-7.

Renegade Chanel Reaves finished third in the long jump with a distance of 17- 6.5 to qualify for state.

BC’s Carey Tuuaamalernalo threw a distance of 130-1 to finish first in the discus throw to qualify for state.

The women’s 4×100 relay team also qualified for state. Reaves, Colbert, Ashley Webber and Carolina Gone finished with a time of 49.64 in third place.

BC track and field head coach Dave Frickel was pleased with the results from So Cal prelims.

“We had seven kids qualify in various different events. It was a good outing.”

The So Cal Championships are on May 9 at Mt. SAC and the CCCAA State Track & Field Championships are May15-16 at San Mateo.