After winning their respective conference championships, the Cerritos College men’s and women’s track and field teams collectively qualified 57 entries for the Southern California Championships at Mt. San Antonio College.

The men had 22 entries for this Saturday’s SoCal Finals while the women ended up with 35 entries.

With only two more meets left in the season (SoCal Finals and state championships), leaders have emerged from within the team.

Nick Armstrong, winner of the Southern Decathlon Championship, said, “I always try to encourage and motivate other who doubt them.”

Armstrong proved to be a team player in Saturday’s SoCal preliminaries as he qualified for three events, including a first-place finish in the high jump.

“If I score high in three events, that’s better for my team in terms of points than finishing first in only one event,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong also qualified in the javelin at 12th place and the 110-meter hurdles in ninth.

Latvian native, Karen Guravska, lead the women with a first place finish in the pole vault and finished sixth in the javelin competition.

Guravska has bigger goals past just the SoCal finals, “I hope to take the state this year and end up first in the nation in the pole vault.”

Other notable athletes are Bruce McCall and Rachel Butler.

McCall qualified in the four events and Butler in three.