Silva (1500m) & Jones (shot put) Win Individual State Championships; Tigers Finish Second at CCCAA Championships
SAN DIEGO -- Powered by individual championships by Joshua Silva in the 1,500-meter run and James Jones in the shot put, the Riverside City College (RCC) Tigers men's track and field team finished in second place at the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Championships which were hosted at San Diego Mesa College's Merrill Douglas Stadium last Friday and Saturday (May 20-21).
Riverside City compiled 99 points to finish behind defending state champion Mt. San Antonio College (MSAC), which tallied 148 points. It was the Mounties' tenth state championship. Prior to MSAC's back-to-back state championship run, RCC had won six of the previous seven state championships (2008-09-10, 2012-13-14).
In 2015, RCC finished in fifth place (46 points). In 2011, RCC finished fourth (also 46 points).
Silva -- who is pictured -- is a sophomore distance runner from Corona (Corona HS '14) and won the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:55.65. RCC teammate, Cristian Malloy (Murrieta / Vista Murrieta HS '15), finished third (3:57.50).
Coming into the CCCAA Championships, Silva was the state leader with a time of 3:54.41. He was second at the CCCAA Southern California (SoCal) Championship the previous weekend (May 14).
Jones, a freshman from Bremerton, WA (Olympia [WA] HS '11), won the shot put with a mark of 16.96 meters. Jones won the SoCal Championship with a mark of 55' 1.
Additionally, the Tigers collected four second-place finishes and four third-place showings (including Malloy's effort in the 1,500-meter run).
RCC head men's track and field coach Jim McCarron is in his ninth year at the Tigers' helm.
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In the 10,000-meter run, a pair of Tigers hold the state meet record and the SoCal meet record. Wilhelm Gidasuday holds the state meet record (29:39.31), which was set in 1999, and Julius Kariuki holds the SoCal meet mark (29:22.70), which was set in 1988.
Additionally, in the hammer throw, RCC freshman Christopher Brown (Desert Hot Springs HS) finished fourth (54.40 meters) for five points, and RCC sophomore Zachary Fromm (Jurupa Valley / Patriot HS) finished seventh (49.45 meters) for two points to complete RCC team scoring of 13 points.
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