Moorpark Pair Will Have an Eventful Day

The Moorpark College men’s track and field team hopes to ride the broad shoulders of Isaiah Mustafa and Sean McKeown to a top-five finish in the Southern California junior college championships at UC San Diego today.

Several other Moorpark athletes have qualified for the meet, but Coach Doni Green admits that the multitalented Mustafa and McKeown must turn in solid performances if the Raiders are to finish in the top five for the third consecutive year.

Moorpark enters today’s competition with 11 points in the team standings as a result of second- and sixth-place finishes by Mustafa and Kevin Kephart in the Southern California decathlon championships last month.

Mustafa will compete in the high jump, long jump and 1,600-meter relay. McKeown will see triple duty in the shotput, discus and hammer throw.

Paul Gurman (1,500), Mike Esparza (3,000 steeplechase), Brady Mertes (shotput and discus) and Manfred Wagner (hammer) also have qualified in individual events for Moorpark.

The top four finishers in the relays and in each race up to 800 meters automatically qualify for next week’s state championships at Cerritos College.

The fastest fifth-place finisher in those events from either the Southern and Northern California championships also will advance.

The top six finishers will advance in races measuring 1,500 meters or farther and in the field events.

Other top local performers in the men’s meet are Isaac Turner (800) and Jeremy Gump (pole vault) of Glendale, Rob Landtiser (400 intermediate hurdles) of Canyons, and Jesse Polsten (hammer throw) of Antelope Valley.

The leading local entrants in the women’s competition are Antelope Valley’s Teresa Santana (3,000), Susan Doddridge (discus) and Debra Gifford (javelin), Ventura’s Amy Blackburn (discus) and Josephina Sanchez (3,000), and Glendale’s Auria Roberto (3,000) and Margarita Reinteria (1,500).

The field events will start at noon, followed by the running events at 2 p.m.