By Jacob Norling
March 1, 2025
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's and Women's Track and Field began what looks to be a busy month of March on Saturday, when the Warriors headed up the freeway to compete in the Gaucho Relays.
 
On the women's side of the relays, Westmont's 4x100 unit finished third on Saturday with a time of 47.63. UCSB took home top honors in this relay with a mark of 46.87. More importantly, in Westmont's context, Grace Soberanis, Kennah Shaffer, Jaiden Rodrigues, and Charlotte Williams set a new program record in the 4x100. Their time of 47.63 breaks the previous clip of 47.68 from May of 2023, which Rodrigues and Williams also had a hand in.
 
Another strong relay featured a trio of those same women, with Claire Van Horn joining Soberanis, Williams, and Rodrigues in the 1600 sprint medley relay. The quartet finished second in the event, with a time 4:12.29. UCSB won the event with a mark of 4:06.21.
 
Also for the women, Shaffer stayed busy in the long jump, where she posted the third-best mark of the dat at 5.63m (18-5.75).Another highlight of the day, came in the men's 4x800 relay, which Westmont fans know has been a must-see event since 2021.
 
Zola Sokhela, of course, anchored the race, with Joshua Lin, Phin Bonner, and Jack Vanden Heuvel rounding out the squad. The four men blew past their opposition on Friday, winning the event with a time of 7:38.07, which was nearly 15 seconds faster than their closest threat. The race was a little more than a second off of what would have been a top-10 time in program history.
 
On the men's side of the sprint medley relay, John Sakaguchi joined Lin, Sokhela, and Vanden Heuvel for what turned out to be a tight finish. Westmont's men ultimately finished second in the event with a time of 3:28.85, while the Gaucho's relay team won it at 3:28.24. By just three-hundredths of a second, the men's sprint medley relay became a top-10 time in program history.
 
On the field side of things, another strong showing by Joel Nakazawa in the discus saw the Warrior finish in third in the event with a mark of 45.97m (150-10).
 
Two weeks from now the entire team will return to action at the Rosh and Sharon Irwin Invitational in San Diego.