Transitioning from cold to hot weather wasn’t enough to throw off the track and field team that had a strong performance at the Bakersfield Relays.

Today the team will travel to Long Beach for a South Coast Conference mini invite, to face schools such as Long Beach, Riverside andMt. SAC.

“Thursday’s meet is a big meet, because we have some of the strongest men and women in the state competing,” coach Dean Lofgren said.

“It’s kind of an early season showdown,” Lofgren said.

EC will travel to California State University, Northridge for an all-day invite Saturday.

“We are sending a small group on Saturday,” Lofgren said. “We hope they gather some experience against some good competition.”

At the Bakersfield Invitational, the men and women gave solid performances and finished the invite with good personal times.

In the men’s high jump, Amir Fisher captured third place with a leap of 6-4.

Roy Alugbue finished in fifth with a jump of 6-2. In the 400-meter, Alugbue managed to finish in third place with a time of 48.90

In 1500-meters, Jason Hanekeawe took second place with a time of 4:07.01.

“Out of sixty competitors, he finished fourth overall,” Lofgren said. “It was a slow tactical race.”

Rogers, who also ran in the 800-meter, captured fourth with a time of 1:59.35.

In the 1600-meter relay, Kyle Montgomery, Emmit Karlay, Lamar Taylor and Alugbue earned second place with a time of 3:17.62

“It was a very good run for Kyle after coming back from a hamstring injury,” Lofgren said.

In the women’s 1600-meter relay, Lindsey Brown, Shammeer Dawson, Danyelle Meniefield and Gabrielle Meniefield finished in first place with a time of 4:01.81

“It was a good win for us,” Dawson said. “We ran against some tough competition and we finished first.”

For Dawson, the most important thing at the moment is the South Coast Conference meet in Long Beach.

“It’s going to be a tough meet,” Dawson said. “We have all of the teams in our conference competing.”

Lofgren was satisfied with the way the athletes performed and acknowledges the hard work his athletes put into the meet.

“The race was at one o’clock and in the middle of the heat,” Lofgren said.

“It was so hot at the time and the air was extremely dry, too,” Lofgren said.