chantel

chantelLong Beach City College freshman Chantel Dunson exceeded her own expectations by earning a first-place finish in the triple jump at the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Track and Field State Championship at College of San Mateo on Saturday.

Dunson told the Post last week, “I want to at least hit over 38 feet and to finish in at least the top five, I’d like top three, but definitely top five.”

The star athlete closed out the 2015 season with her best jump of the year of 11.59 meters (38.025 feet), beating the second-place holder Ariel Thomas of Cerritos College by one foot and swiftly surpassing her previous season best of 11.47 meters set at the Southern California Championship preliminaries, according to the announcement.

Dunson is LBCC’s first track and field state champion since Jonathan Sanders won the 2011 state title in the 400-meter hurdles and is the first female to win a state championship since Angela Wells took the long jump in 2006, according to LBCC Sports Information Specialist Chris Ruiz.

10 points were earned by Dunson for the state-championship victory, placing the LBCC women in 29th place overall.

Sophomore Jared Jones closed out his LBCC athletic career with a fifth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:37.03.

The men’s 4×100-meter relay team of Anterio Bateman, Jordan Noble, Damond Burns and Jacob Thorton was disqualified for running out of the lane on the first exchange.

Jones earned four points for the Long Beach men to give the Vikings a 32nd-place team finish.

Photo by Dean Lofgren

Asia Morris is a Long Beach native covering arts and culture for the Long Beach Post. You can reach her @hugelandmass on Twitter and Instagram and at [email protected].