Over the weekend, the California Lutheran University Kingsmen and Regals track and field program traveled to Claremont as they competed in the two-day Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship meet.

The Kingsmen four by 100-meter relay team, made up of senior Trent Mosely, junior Chris Brodnax, junior Obasi Dees and first-year Emilio Guarjardo made its way to the podium.

The Regals also had three athletes podium: senior thrower Alexa Barnes placed first, senior heptathlete Kelsey Rouse placed second and junior long-jumper Kendall Guidetti placed first.

On Saturday, Cal Lutheran set the tone early, racking up 12 personal bests between the Kingsmen and Regals.

Leading the way for the men’s team in the field events was senior Anthony Flores and junior Daniel Avila as they went back-to-back placing seventh and eighth in the men’s hammer. Both collected a personal best at 42.26 meters and 40.01 meters.

Dees, who was nursing a slight hamstring strain, qualified on day one in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.98 seconds and in the 200-meter dash at 22.11 seconds, securing him second place in both heats and an automatic spot in Sunday’s finals.

Dees is an experienced athlete, as he is also a defensive back on the football team. He said he knows what it takes to prepare his mind and body before meets.

“I always start off by praying to God before I run any meet because, mentally, that relaxes me knowing it’s all in God’s hands. I also just tell myself constantly that I’m the best at what I do because it keeps me confident. Physically, I just keep up with our lifting program Tuesdays and Thursdays to stay strong and do our running program throughout the week to stay in peak condition,” Dees said.

When Dees strained his hamstring just two weeks prior to the meet, he wasn’t sure whether or not he could run for his team. But Dees said “things all worked out for the best by the grace of God.”

On to the women’s side, Kendall Guidetti had a remarkable day on Saturday, posting her personal best in the long jump while also breaking the Cal Lutheran program all-time record with a 5.81-meter jump. This marks her third straight year claiming the long jump title and moves her to No. 2 in the nation for the event.

Cal Lutheran track and field team captain Alexa Barnes proved her dominance yet again as she took home the championship discus title.

After taking second in last year’s efforts, Barnes threw an impressive 41.80 meters to take first—not only a personal record for her, but also the third best mark in program history.

Barnes said she is grateful her dream of finishing off her collegiate track career strong came true.

“I know what I can do and I know what I need to do when I step in that ring and knew how amazing it was going to be if I accomplished it. It was a moment I’ve been dreaming of since a freshman. As for representing Cal Lu, we have a lot of upperclassmen athletes that have been preparing for this meet all year and absolutely went out there and killed it and had tons of lifetime PR’s…We’re a family and it definitely showed this weekend,” Barnes said.

Head Coach Matthew Lea, who is in his tenth year of leading the program, had nothing but great things to say about how the teams performed over the weekend.

“I was just really proud overall at how each of them competed to the best of their ability and at how many SCIAC individual titles we won and all-SCIAC honors that we took home. They went out there and competed throughout the very grueling two-day event. It was awesome to see,” Lea said.

The team will head to Los Angeles for the Occidental invitational Saturday, May 1.

Jeff Wilson
Reporter