In a shining event for Chabot College and the Track and Field program headed by Kyle Robinson, the Gladiators hosted the San Francisco Distance Carnival on March 30-31.
The remarkable meet, which drew 105 schools from 35 states and Canada, was highlighted by the fastest 10k in the world this year by Mauricio Gonzalez from Columbia. He had a time of 28 minutes, 13.49 seconds at Gladiator Stadium.
Robinson says the meet, which started in 2008, was by far the biggest one yet. More than 3,000 athletes participated, which made for two days of virtually nonstop action. San Francisco State co-hosted the meet, but all the races were at Chabot.
"It was awesome," Robinson said of the spectacle.
Chabot athletes appeared to rise to the challenge with inspired efforts.
"Chabot had a phenomenal weekend on the track," Robinson said.
Chabot sophomore David Frisbie took the NorCal lead in the 5k with a time of 14:54, which is No. 3 on the Chabot top 10 list behind Ted Quintana and Olympian Doug Padilla. Nick Pepares punched his ticket to the NorCal Championships with a Javelin toss of 46.3 meters. He is now the conference leader in the event.
Chabot's Jordan Kirby ran a seasonal best in the 800 (1:55.90), and Jamie Guzman did the same in the 400 hurdles (1:08.4). Freshmen Thomas Gallagher and Lucas Vigil also qualified for the NorCal Championships in the 5k, running 15:49 and 15:54.
Dante Johnson had a huge personal best in the 100 (11.15).
Roman Johnson was the lone Chabot athlete at Stanford last week and he represented the Gladiators well. He took sixth in the 100 Invitational and ran an NorCal leading time of 10.58. He is the second fastest 100-meter runner to don a Chabot Jersey.