GOOD SHOWING FOR MARAUDER ATHLETES AT STATE MEET

SAN DIEGO - Four Marauder athletes competed in Saturday's California State Track and Field Championships held at Mesa College in San Diego.

All four athletes fared well including Joshua Cummings (400 meters) who finished eighth, Bradley Wiggs (10000 meter run) finished ninth, Alec Franco (3000 meter steeplechase) finished 10th and Ryan Alvarez (hammer) took home 11th place.

Cummings, who ran a personal best 47.86 last week at Antelope Valley College at the Southern California Regional Championships, crossed the line in 48.53. Mt. Sac's Tubotein Taylor won the event in 46.64.

Franco ran three seconds better than he did last week at AVC and finished his race in 9:50.38, despite hurting his ankle on the first water jump according to AVC head coach Mark Covert. Rival Jason Hilquist of College of the Canyons was the state champion winning the race in 9:16.04.

"I thought they all competed really well. Wiggs had a really good race, something like 25 or 30 seconds better than his PR and Alvarez was battling a bad cold," Covert said. "All in all they did a good job. I have no complaints. Everybody competed really hard. Everybody should feel really good about getting there."

Wiggs ran an amazing race knocking off nearly a half minute off his personal best. The freshman clocked 32:01.47. Arch nemesis Vahagn Isayan of Glendale College, who Wiggs had faced several times this season, won the race in 31:19.65.

Alvarez, who unfortunately was sick, tossed 46.27m finishing behind Modesto College's Daniel Roberts, who won the event in 62.87.

Over the years the Marauders have had five state champions and 29 athletes who were named All-State. AVC's last state champion was Taveon Burke in 2010 in the 100 meters.