Orange Coast College

Track & Field: BABIRACKI TAKES HOME 1,500 STATE TITLE

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

SAN MATEO - With just over one lap to go, the 1,500-meter race was going to come down to whoever had the best final "kick" for the final 400 meters.

OCC's Brandon Babiracki "kicked" first to seperate himself from the pack, then held off the rest of the field en route to winning the state 1,500 meters title last weekend at the California Community College Track and Field Championships at San Mateo College.

Babiracki (pictured left) crossed the finish line first with time of 3 minutes, 54.08 seconds. American River's Dan Napieralski was second with a time of 3:55.23, while San Diego Mesa's Dave Edwards (3:55.69) finished third.

It was a clean sweep for the OCC freshman, who earlier won the Orange Empire Conference and Southern California regional titles in the same event.

Babiracki also competed in the 800 and finished fourth with a time of 1:54.42, just over a second off the winning pace, set by Merritt's Che Ballenger (1:53.11).

A pair of Pirate men also went home with medals as Andres Rossini earned a bronze medal in the discus with a throw of 160 feet. Also, Kyle Peterson showed his all-around athletic ability to finish third in the decathlon with 6,205 points.

Other OCC state final finishes for the men include George Prior in the decathlon (10th, 5,381 points) and javelin (7th, 178-8), Scott Burbach in the javelin (10th, 170-0) and Kenneti Faagata in the discus (8th, 142-3).

On the women's side, freshman Brenda Finney (pictured right) kept herself rather busy last weekend, competing in two events as well as the heptathlon, where she earned the bronze medal with 4,032 points. She also placed seventh in the 400 hurdles (1:07.46) and was a part of OCC's 1,600 relay that placed ninth with a time of 4:06.1. Joining her in the race was Pirate teammates Ashley Rodriguez, Madison Empting and Erendira Uriostegui.

Melinda Rackliffe competed well in the 3,000 steeplechase and finished fifth with a time of 11:57.33.

Another fifth-place performance came from the pole vault, where Jade LeBlanc cleared 10-3/4.

The OCC men took sixth overall with 60 points, while the OCC women finished 11th with 28 points.