The north side of the El Camino College throwing field took a beating after being pierced, punched and pulled during the April 7 Vaquero Classic Invitational.
Several college teams, including the El Camino College Warriors, displayed their strength and agility while competing in the two main events: hammer and javelin throw.
Freshmen Nathan Albers represented El Camino during flight one of the men’s hammer throw, steadily swinging the weighted ball around his shoulder, turning one, two, three times before letting the weight go with a yell before plummeting to the ground.
Albers’ best throw of the day was 30.71 meters.
However, the meet was temporarily halted after 30 minutes in after two hammers thrown by Moorpark’s Wyatt Nowak and Nate Ocegueda got stuck in the steel gate surrounding the throwers.
After the delay, the women’s hammer throw commenced.
All eyes were on sophomore Makayla Nored, who placed seventh all-time her freshman year in 2022, and freshman Naomi Walker, who are both making a name for themselves, breaking records.
Nored entered the Vaquero Classic with a seed mark of 35.26 meters, but recorded a foul for the event.
Meanwhile, Walker placed 4th in the hammer throw at the Dave Shannon Invitational at Murdock Stadium on April 1, with a personal best of 118 feet and 8 inches, placing sixth on the El Camino all-time list.
At the Vaquero Classic, Walker threw 29.31 meters, her best attempt of the day.
Walker said she enjoys competing on her home field but felt that she could have done better after sustaining an injury to her lower back.
“I hurt myself weeks ago, so I’m trying to work through that pain,” Walker said. “We use our lower body for the events that I do, so it’s kinda tough.”
However, the injury was unnoticeable as she spun, pranced, and launched javelins and hammers toward the sky.
On the men’s side, the name Isaiah Silva was mentioned across the board leading to the day’s last event. Silva is ranked as a state leader in California in the javelin throw and entered the Vaquero Classic with a mark of 48.02 meters.
The El Camino freshmen won the javelin at the California Community College Athletic Association’s South California Championship with a mark of 150 feet, 11 inches. Silva’s best throw of the day was 43.81 meters, placing third overall.
Like his teammates, Silva echoed the sentiment of not doing his best but said he’s working towards breaking his records to place in the conference.
“I want to hit 50 meters, which is about 165 feet, and my personal best is 48, which is 157,” Silva said. “I hope at least one of my teammates can make it to the conference with me. That’d be really cool.”
Assistant coach Darryl Guerin is also thinking ahead to the finals and has confidence that they are heading in the right direction.
“I think they did really well overall. They got a lot of PR’s, and they’re heading in the right direction right now,” Guerin said. “As we’re coming towards our SoCal finals towards the end, hopefully, they can get through PRs there.”
To do that, Guerin wants to focus on getting his team back in shape mentally and physically.
“The intensity has to improve, and their focus has to be better so they can get those big throws,” Guerin said. “Our injuries too, we got to get healthy a little bit, hopefully, get them to the trainers, making sure they’re doing that to get healthy, and it’ll lead to big throws.”
