The Hancock softball and baseball teams have both qualified for the postseason.
The No. 16 Hancock softball squad will host No. 17 Chaffey Tuesday at 2 p.m. in a play-in game in the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Southern Regional. Hancock, which finished second in the Western State Conference North Division behind Ventura, is 22-14. Chaffey is 25-14.
The Hancock-Chaffey winner will play at either No. 1 Palomar or No. 2 Mt. San Antonio College Friday in the first round. Ventura drew the No. 6 seed and will host No. 14 Pasadena in the first round.
The Hancock baseball team finished third in the WSC North behind co-champs Santa Barbara and Cuesta in a race that went down to the last day of the regular season. The No. 10 Bulldogs (27-13) will host No. 15 Southwestern (22-17) at 2 p.m. Friday at Hancock's John Osborne Field in the first game of a best-of-three series in the first round of the CCCAA Southern Regional.
The second game of the series is slated to start at 11 a.m. If necessary, the deciding third game will start at a time TBA, though it will be 2 p.m. if the baseball regional time schedule is the same as the softball regional time schedule.
Cuesta drew the No. 8 seed and will host No. 13 Fullerton in the first round. Santa Barbara drew the No. 9 seed and will host No. 20 Cerro Coso.
Western State Conference Men's Swimming Athlete of the Year Max Pecile will lead a Hancock contingent of six individuals and four relay teams at the CCCAA Championships which will take place at East Los Angeles College Thursday through Saturday.
Pecile, a Santa Ynez native who won the 200 individual medley, 400 individual medley and 200 backstroke at the Western State Conference Championships, will swim in all of those events plus a leg for each qualifying relay team at the CCCAA meet. Pecile set school records in both IM races at the WSC Championships.
Sign up to receive headlines in your inbox!
Breaking News | Local Sports | Daily Headlines | Local Obituaries | Weather | Local Offers
Jarred Torres will swim in each relay as well, and will race individually in the 500, 200 and 1,650 freestyles. Asa Marsalek will compete in the open 400 and and 1,650 feestyles and will swim a leg for the 800 relay squad.
Jericho Orsino will swim in the 200 and 400 medley relay, and Jacob Larson will swim in the 400 freestyle relay.
Hancock's Emma Marsalek and Jada Brown will compete in the women's CCCAA championships. Marsalek, who won twice at the WSC meet, will race in the 500 free, 400 IM and 1,650 free. Brown will compete in the 100 butterfly and 200 backstroke.
Mike Ashmore of Hancock was named the WSC Coach of the Year.Â
Sophomore Reann Booker finished third in 11.98 seconds in the women's 100 and third in 24.46 in the 200 at the WSC Championships at Moorpark College last Friday.Â
Bulldogs Yasmin Mendez and Itandehui Olea finished in the top 10, and Olea did so twice. Mendez finished fifth in the 3,000 steeplechase, and Olea placed seventh in the 1,500 and ninth in the 800.
On the Hancock men's side, Cesar Ruiz placed sixth in the discus with a best of 35.94 meters, Jordan Smith was ninth in the triple jump at 12.51, and Jacob Burr finished 10th in the javelin with a best of 42.52.
Qualifiers for the CCCAA Championships are slated to be announced by Wednesday. The meet will take place Friday and Saturday at San Diego Mesa.
Kenny Cress is a sports reporter for the Santa Maria Times, covering local sports in northern Santa Barbara County. You can send information or story ideas to him by emailing it to KCress@SantaMariaTimes.com.
