By Jason Reed
Sports Editor
The Bakersfield College track and field men’s and women’s team continues to stay in the top three throughout the course of the season. On March 16, BC hosted the Bakersfield Relays, which featured three other schools. The women took first place in a meet for the first time this season. The men once again finished in first place in the last meet of the season at Bakersfield College.
Nine BC runners won multiple races for the Renegades. Men’s runner Michael Norwood stood out for BC, winning four races during the Bakersfield Relays. Sterling Fuggett, Tejera Dial and Natalie O’Dwyer each won three races for BC. Nicole Lewis, Elizabeth Sanchez, Ensley Davis, Davis Loustalot and Justin Evans finished the last Bakersfield meet of the season with two first place finishes each.
“They had very good performances, both teams,” BC head coach Dave Frickel said on his team’s performance. “We had some outstanding marks. They just continue to do well and it was a great way to finish up in our final race of the season at home,” he said.
“Overall it was a good meet and everybody is continuing to improve.”
BC women dominated the ranks with a score of 204. Second place Saddleback College finished with 107, while third Place Antelope Valley College scored 91. College of the Canyons took first place in one event on the day and finished in fourth overall with the score of 73.
O’Dwyer ran four races and took second in only one. Her (O’Dwyer) only second place finish came in the 200-meter run, trailing her teammate Nicole Lewis. Lewis took first place in the event with the time of 25.48. O’Dwyer also ran the 100-meter for the first time this season and took first place at 12.61.
O’Dwyer then participated in the 1500-meter run, along with Jade Gridiron, Molly Fitch, and Nicole Lewis. The women were able to finish first with the time of 49.09. In O’Dwyer’s final race of the day she ran in the 4×400-meter relay with Tejera Dial, Elizabeth Sanchez and Molly Fitch. They took first place at 4:09.21. BC earned 18 points in the event, due to the fact that they raced each other with the second BC running group taking second and earned eight points.
Tejera Dial won the 1500-meter run at 4:59.34 and the women’s triple jump with the distance of 36.6 feet. Elizabeth Sanchez won the 800-meter run with the time of 2.29.56. Other notable first place winners were, Ensley Davis, who took the women’s high jump with 4.10 feet. Alicia Torres won the women’s shot put with the distance of 37 feet.
BC men took place in the relays with the score of 170. Saddleback pulled out the first place win scoring 181 points. Canyons took third with 152.5, while Antelope finished fourth with 115.5 points.
Michael Norwood finished first place in four events, helping his team earn 40 points. Norwood won the 100-meter dash with the time of 10.86. He would then go on to run in the 200-meter dash and took first place at 21.91 seconds. Norwood then participated in the men’s 4×100 along with Walter Hunter, Sterling Fuggett, and Justin Evans. BC took first place in the event with the time of 42.38. Norwood’s final race of the day came in the 4×400-meter relay. That event also featured Fuggett, Evans and Davis Loustalot. The men finished with the time of 3:20.82 and BC also gained five more points in the event with another set of Renegade runners participating. Fuggett won the 400-meter with the time of 49.43 and Loustalot then won the 800-meter at 1:54.67.
The Renegades next scheduled meet will take place April 9-10 in the Southern California Multi’s Meet at Cerritos College.