Following a strong showing at Pasadena, the women’s track team has spent the last week preparing for the expected heat of the Bakersfield Relays this weekend.

At Pasadena, the women finished second behind defending state champion Mt. SAC, and jumped over Cerritos and Long Beach in a five-way meet held at Pasadena.

In the 1600m relay, which features a team of Caitlin Barrow, Lindsey Brown and two remaining spots which will be vied for by Shammeer Dawson, Krystal Johnson and Specelle Williams, the Warriors automatically qualified for the SoCal finals with a time of 3:57.83 last Saturday in the CSULB “Jack Rose” relays.

That time was good enough to place them third in the state behind conference rivals LBCC and Mt. SAC.

“Dawson, I thought, was the athlete of the meet on Thursday,” assistant coach Kevin Hughley said.

For the first time in her career, Dawson ran in three events; a time of 12.71 put her fifth in the 100m; 26.35m for fourth place in the 200m; and a time of 60.7 in the 1600m relays helped the So Cal qualifieing team.

“She’s got the most room for improvement,” Hughley said.

Brown, a freshman from San Pedro, is one of the rapidly improving sprinters this semester.

“It’s all mental,” Brown said. “I was worrying about how my competitors would do, I wasn’t really focusing on the race. I’ve started to split up my race and take it lap by lap.”

“You’re not a baby any more,” Brown said, “You’ve got to learn to be your own person.”

Star Thurman had a busy day, running the 400m, 1600m relay along with the long jump and the triple jump where she took third with a jump of 35-3. Thurman attributes her better scores to increased training.

“I’m getting more intervals put on me, as well as the jumps,” Thurman said, “I think the sprints are helping me a lot.”

In high school, the majority of these women are able to perform on pure talent alone. On the college level, all these women were stars on their high school teams. To excel on the college level, it takes an inner strength, a will to do more than is asked.

Stephanie Robbins, a freshman from South took second in the shot put and discus. Robbins, who has already qualified for the So Cal championship in the shot put, increased her discus throw from 108-2 to 114-10 on Thursday.

Last Saturday in the 4X1600m relay, the team posted a 22:28.77 time that was good enough to place them third all-time in EC history. The team, consisting of Dinora Moran, Becky Cherry, Evelyn Lopez and Cora Webber, took fourth place at the CSULB Open.

The CSULB Open allowed the athletes to see where they stood against: open division, collegiate and junior college competitors. You get a chance to see what kind of competitors you have on your team.

“We got to see our diversity. The girls in the jumps did well,” Hughley said.

The So Cal championships and the state championships are held in Bakerfield so it’s important that the women know what to expect with the desert heat.

With the best of the best being in EC’s conference, Lofgren knows that the competition will be a challenge. With its first two events behind them, the team will look to match earlier successes. Lofgren hopes the team does well and looks forward to seeing his group compete in Bakersfield in May.