Banner year for Cerritos College highlighted by state, national titles

Cerritos College’s athletic program eaed Califoia’s No. 7 ranking for the 2016-17 athletic year, a year in which the Falcons won a national championship, three state championships and six conference championships. More than 100 of the Falcons’ student-athletes will continue their athletic and academic careers at four-year universities next fall.

“We just had a phenomenal year, but what I like most about that, from my perspective, is the large number of students that we’re transferring out into four-year university scholarships,” athletics dean Dan Smith said.

In an athletic season full of highlights, the women’s soccer and women’s track and field programs stole the show with a pair of state titles. The soccer team (23-1-1) won the NSCAA Division III non-scholarship national title.

The soccer team obliterated its competition on its way to a fifth consecutive state title and second consecutive national title. The Falcons scored 128 goals and gave up 16, even defeating ECC Compton 24-0.

UNLV signee Juanita Webster led the women’s track and field team to its third consecutive state title. She won four individual state championships, including a nation-leading 5,471 points in the heptathlon.

The team set a state record for the highest score at a state championship meet, totaling 149.5 points, 48 scored by Webster.

“It’s phenomenal that one person can score that many points for you,” Smith said. “What’s the most amazing thing is that one individual like that achieved so much and yet the whole women’s track team won another state championship.”

The team stepped its game up in the classroom as well, Smith said, praising coach Chris Richardson for his tutoring efforts.

“Richardson has been really proactive in math tutoring. In Califoia community colleges, a large number of students don’t get to a transferrable level math,” Smith said. “Now that logjam gone; we’re getting more and more athletes out there.”

The Falcons don’t see their dominance coming to an end anytime soon.

“One person said to me, ‘Everybody else in the state is trying to get second place in women’s soccer and women’s track and field,’” Smith said. “We know we’re going to get first place because year after year it’s happened.“

The Falcons also won the wrestling duals state championship, going 18-1 and defeating Fresno City in the title match 23-16 in a thrilling come-from-behind victory.

Both tennis teams enjoyed great seasons as well. Four-time reigning Coach of the Year Alvin Kim led the men to a 27-2 record and the women to a 10-6 record. Both teams were South Coast Conference champions. The men’s doubles team of Sasha Krasnov and Nikita Katsnelson finished second in state and the women’s team was eliminated in the state quarterfinals. State Player of the Year Krasnov is headed to UC Irvine in the fall.

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The men’s basketball team went 21-7 and had five players receive scholarship offers to four-year schools (Cristian Perez, Tyler Payne, Salvador Carlos, Brian Nebo and Anthony Lefeau). Former Falcon Tom Tolbert, a role player for the Warriors in the 1990s,was inducted into the Califoia Community College Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Hall of Fame.

Although its female counterparts stole the show, the men’s soccer team did not disappoint, finishing 9-8-5 on the way to a SCC title. The men’s track and field team finished 16th in state.

Both water polo teams enjoyed successful seasons, as the men finished 26-5 and SCC champion . The Falcons were eliminated by Cuesta 12-11 in the first round of the state playoffs. The women went 16-11 and suffered a similar fate in the first round of the regional playoffs.

The softball team finished 28-15. The Falcons led the state in walks. They lost in the regional playoffs. Assistant coach Jenel Guadagno has since been hired as head coach at Cuesta College.

Smith attributed the school’s athletic and academic success to the behind-the-scenes work of the coaching staffs.

“The real key is the committed dedicated coaches that we have,” Smith said. “We want people who are as good in the classroom as they are in the playing field or on the court and that’s something we emphasize.”

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