By Brandon Petersen
All season long, Harrison Horner and Abelardo Rendon have been making headlines for the Westcliff Track & Field team.
Friday at Soka University in Aliso Viejo, they showed us why once again, both claiming Cal Pac individual championships.
Horner absolutely destroyed the competition in the 400M, and Rendon bested everyone in an event he could call his "side-gig."
The Cal Pac does not yet have a championship round for high jump, but, rest assured, if it did, Rendon would have won that as well.
Friday at Soka, Rendon spent most of the day chilling behind his shades, cheering on his teammates, but once the warmups came off, Rendon turned up.
One look at Westcliff's star high jumper, focused and hungry, illuminated his intention to win the triple jump, and that's exactly what he did, maxing out at 41-feet, 0.25-inches to claim Cal Pac gold.
Freshman Alexandro Villegas also made it to the medal stand, taking third in the event.
As for Horner, Westcliff's star sprinter seemed to toy with the 400M competition, winning in 50.14 seconds.
"Going into it, I knew that there was no one really close to me time-wise," Horner said. "I knew I didn't want to go out too fast, because then I wouldn't have anyone pushing me the whole race.
"The person in Lane 9 was who pushed me until the 200-meter mark, and that's when I decided to get separation."
The maturation of Horner as a sprinter has been remarkable from the start of the season to Friday.
Horner says that has a lot to do with his mentor on the coaching staff.
"I'm feeling amazing," he said after running the 200. "Me and Coach Ty (Blanchard), the whole season, we put in work to get here.
"I feel great right now, definitely."
Horner is a former defensive back on the high school football field, and he says, like a lot of football players, track was a natural fit for him at the college level.
"I played safety, some cornerback and some slot receiver," Horner said. "You usually notice it with the sprinters — that's why they are usually buffer guys, because a lot translate from football to track.
"There's a lot of emphasis in running in football, and competitiveness — being a dog."
Horner created so much distance between himself and second-place in the 400M that he had time to throw up his finger and send a message to his girlfriend in the crowd as he crossed the finish line.
Speaking of swagger, Esmeray Demirbas showed a little flash of her own in the Women's 100M.
Westcliff Head Coach Mike Crosby thought before the meet that Demirbas had a chance to score some points for the Westcliff women, and that's exactly what she did.
Demirbas won the second heat of the 100 for a seventh overall finish, good for those points.
Demirbas also ran the 200M.
On he distance side, Alex Juarez cut a full 15 seconds off her personal record in the 800M.
"I was very pleased with Alex's 800," Crosby said. "She improved by 15 seconds. That was a big PR and I was very pleased with her."
Crosby was pleased with the day overall, as every single athlete on his roster showed out Friday at Soka.
"The day went quite well," he said. "Harrison win the 400 was probably the highlight. He did a good job running the 200 as well. Esmeray did a good job to get our women's points in the 100.
"Overall, it was a good day."
Crosby come to Westcliff by way of Biola, where he built the cross country program from scratch and turned it into a three-time national champion.
Now with the track season concluded, Crosby will turn his attention to cross country, where he takes over the helm as well.
