APERCrew Varsity 8 Boat
The Varsity 8 has had tremendous growth and change this season – and it is well deserved. Not many people have the courage and determination to go to some of the hardest workouts they will ever do in their lives, six days a week, at 5 a.m., but this group of students do.
They have consistently performed at higher and higher levels, and did a fantastic job in Worcester, MA where they competed against some of the fasted division III schools in the country. Over the course of two days, Mills competed in three races against Bates College, Holy Cross, University of New Hampshire, William Smith College, Tufts University, Vassar College, Trinity, Ithaca, and Worcester Polytech Institute. This year, they also had outstanding performances against UC Irvine; UC San Diego; CSU Long Beach and Humboldt State University.
The Varsity 8 heads into their last competition for the season at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association’s Regional Championship in Sacramento, CA, May 3-4. There, they will compete against University of Puget Sound, Willamette, Lewis&Clark, Pacific Lutheran Univeristy, Orange Coast College, Colorado, Arizona State University, Humboldt, and the UC Santa Barbara.
Head coach Angela Badran said, “I am extremely proud of the work ethic, growth, and team ownership this group of outstanding student-athletes has developed this year.”
Perla Cantu, Track & Field
Perla Cantu never planned on throwing the javelin, but she broke the Mills College school record this April at SF State’s Johnny Mathis Invitational. Her throw of 73′ 8″ earned her sixth pace at the prestigious collegiate meet, and surpassed the previous school record by almost three feet.
A year ago Cantu came out for track and field as one of the team’s top distance runners, but decided to learn javelin when a chronic injury prevented her from running. The learning curve was steep, and she battled both the challenge of learning an incredibly technical event from scratch and the frustration of watching her distance runner teammates on the track where she wanted to be.
This year, she is the team’s top javelin thrower, a captain for the fourth season in a row, and is slowly making her way back to getting healthy so she can run in the fall for cross country.
“Perla is the kind of athlete you only get every once in a great while,” said Head coach Laura Davis. “She’ll succeed no matter what she does, because she’s so determined and so tough that it’ll only be a matter of time before she rises to the top.”
The Mills track and field team will be hosting a home meet on May 2 at Skyline High School. The meet is open to all community athletes, and you can register at directathletics.com, or contact ldavis@mills.edu if you’d like to volunteer to help put the meet on.
