Titans are primed for a race back to the top in the Big West – OCRegister
With an embarrassment of riches at his disposal, John Elders is feeling a bit, well, embarrassed. Then, he remembers the Cal State Fullerton men’s track and field team last year had its two-year Big West championship streak snapped by Long Beach State — and the resolve returns.
“Oh my gosh. This is probably the deepest, most talented roster we’ve ever had. It’s very exciting,” said Elders, who begins his 32nd season as the Titans’ head track and field coach. “Specifically, the engine that drives our team now: the sprint/hurdles. We were really good last year; we scored 96 points (in the Big West Conference meet) and that area is even stronger this year.
“We scored 151 (total) points last year and I think we’ve improved in all four areas (sprints/hurdles, distance, throws and jumps).”
What Elders and lieutenants Marques Barosso (sprints/hurdles), Alex Tebbe (distances), Robert Marlow (throws), Cortney Stafford (jumps and multi-events) and Estelle Naito (pole vault) have at their disposal is a team so deep that Elders is already anticipating tough decisions he’ll face in mid-May, come the Big West Conference meet at UC Irvine. There, Elders and Co. get only 32 competitors.
“We probably have over 40 who are good enough to compete. That will be tough, but it’s a good problem to have,” Elders said. “This is why kids are coming to our program. They want to be part of a championship program, but part of that is you have to earn your way to the championship season. At the same time, this will push everyone to get better. It will be a bummer to leave some kids at home, but ultimately, it will make all of us better.”
Hard as it is to believe, the Titans are already better at the aforementioned engine: sprint/hurdles. Last year, Cal State Fullerton sent four individual sprinters and two relay teams to the NCAA West Regional Preliminaries, a contingent led by one of the best middle-distance runners in program history — Marcel Espinoza, who returns for his senior season with a full plate of junior-year honors to equal or surpass.
The Big West Men’s Track Athlete of the Year in 2019, Espinoza broke his school record in the 400-meters (45.87 seconds) en route to becoming only the third Titan in program history to win a conference 400-meter title and second runner in conference history to break 46 seconds. After qualifying for the NCAA West Preliminaries in three events (400, 4X100 and 4X400 relays), Espinoza paced the 4X400 relay team to a school record and a spot in the NCAA Championships, where they finished 12th to earn second-team All-American honors.
Elders and Barosso also welcome back hurdler Charles Kelly, who qualified for the NCAA Prelims in the 400 hurdles; sprinter Rasaun House, the Big West Freshman of the Year in 2018 and a member of both relay teams, along with another NCAA relay-team member, 400-meter runner Parris Samaniego. And to that, they welcome newcomers Ryan Hall from College of the Sequoias, Cooper Bibbs from San Diego Mesa College and Nathyn Scruggs (Clovis North High School) as sprinters and Reyte Rash, one of the top high school hurdlers in the state at King High in Riverside.
The distances are nearly as deep, with standout steeplechasers Anthony Alfaro and Jorge Sanchez returning and looking to improve on their 2019 campaigns, when Alfaro finished second in conference and Sanchez — the former walk-on who also finished third in the 5,000 at conference — third.
There’s also Arizona State transfer Eric Gonzalez, who finished fourth in the Big West Cross-Country Championships; freshman Alexis Garcia, who finished 10th at the conference cross-country meet last fall; middle-distance contenders Eric Juarez (800) and Jake Smith (1,500) and senior Sam Pimentel, who returns from a life-threatening brain aneurysm to improve on his 10th-place conference finish in the 10,000 in 2018.
Where the Titans need to improve to grab their third conference title in four seasons will be in the throws, which produced only nine points last year. New throws coach Marlow, who arrives from UC Santa Barbara, inherits returners Tanner Miller and Connor Anderson in the shot/discus/hammer, and welcomes back redshirt senior Corey Gilbert, the school record holder in the discus, who qualified for the NCAA West Prelims in the discus in 2018, in addition to welcoming javelin thrower Davis Yasuda, a transfer from American River College.
“The kids are responding to his training and I’m very confident we will improve over the nine points we scored last year,” Elders said, referring to Marlow.
He’s also confident the jumpers will surpass their 17 points from last year. Charged with accomplishing that are redshirt junior Anthony Cable, who missed last year after tearing his Achilles tendon, but finished seventh in the long jump at the 2018 Big West Conference meet. Behind them are high jumper Marcel Sylvester, who was third at the conference meet last year; Brandon McLaurin, fifth in the triple jump at the Big West meet; and freshman pole vaulter Daniel Palacio from Quartz Hill High.
“I don’t think we have to do anything more in the sprints and distances. If we have status-quo there, we’re still going to be in contention (for the conference title),” Elders said. “We have to improve our production in the throws and the jumps and if we do that, we’re going to be very, very tough to beat.”
Did you know…?
That at 32 years and counting, Cal State Fullerton track and field head coach John Elders is the longest tenured head coach in school history. He was named the Big West Men’s Track and Field Coach of the Year the past three seasons.
He said it
Elders, about the postseason possibilities and NCAA qualifier hopefuls: “Last year, Marcel Espinoza struggled in the NCAAs (in the 400) and he didn’t make it out of the first round. He probably should have advanced to the second round, but I think he’s going to be one of the top 400-meter runners in the country. He’s special. … The steeplechase guys can take it to the next level, Ryan Hall could advance, there’s Samaniego and a number of guys who can reach that level. We have potentially 15-plus guys who can make it to the NCAA Prelims. It’s a really, really loaded squad.”