Mt. San Antonio College is considered to have one of the top junior college track and field programs in the country and that success has not gone unnoticed.
Mounties pole vault coach Giovanni Lanaro reaped some of the rewards recently. He was picked National Collegiate Coach of the Year by the USA Track and Field Pole Vault High Performance and Development Committee.
Mt. SAC, under Lanaro’s tutelage, has been dominant in recent seasons, scoring four California Community College Athletic Association titles since 2012 with 27 competitors reaching the state finals.
“Giovanni was a unanimous decision amongst the selection committee,” said Mt. SAC’s Brian Yokoyama, who is also USA Track and Field men’s and women’s pole vault High Performance and Development chair, “He has done an incredible job with his athletes and has (continued) the great Mt. SAC pole vaulting tradition, of which he is part of, alive with outstanding student/athletes of great character.”
Lanaro, a two-time Olympian for Mexico, won a state title in the pole vault for Mt. SAC in the early 2000s before coming back to the Walnut campus to coach. He was also an All-American at Cal State Fullerton,
APU making push
The Azusa Pacific University men’s and women’s basketball teams have had more dips and rises this season than the best of roller coasters.
Now, as the season comes down the stretch, the two are hoping for a late push to make the Pacific West Conference tournament for a shot at the NCAA Division II playoffs. The top six teams in the final standings advance to the conference tournament.
The men’s team (10-10, 5-5) is in seventh place, one game back of the final tournament slot. The Cougars, who have 10 games left, are coming off back-to-back wins over Academy of Art, of San Francisco, and Point Loma Nazarene.
“In order to learn how to win close games, you have to be able to get stops and rebounds, which we did (against Point Loma),” APU coach Justin Leslie said. “The other part of doing the right thing to close it out was being able to find our best free throw (shooter) and get him the ball to close it out at the line. That takes a lot of guys making the right decisions to put the ball in the right place, and that was some maturity on display.”
The women’s team (8-10, 6-4), holds the sixth spot by a half game. The Cougars, after ending a two-game losing streak with a 74-65 victory over Point Loma, are also within in two games of third.
Both teams take to the road on Saturday, playing a doubleheader at Dixie State, of St. George, Utah.
Arnold reaches milestone
University of La Verne men’s basketball player Hakim Arnold became the eighth Leopard to score 1,000 career points when he had 24 points for 1,015 in La Verne’s 97-96 win over Whittier last week.
The Leopards (10-4, 4-1) trail first-place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps by a half game in the SCIAC standings.
