City College’s Shoelle Bruhin took first place in the women’s 400 meter dash, the highlight of a solid day for the Vaqueros track and field team at the Western State Conference Preliminaries Friday at La Playa Stadium.

Bruhin finished with a time of 58.97 seconds, 2.2 seconds faster than the second place finisher.

She also finished third in the 200 meter dash with a time of 26.57, winning her heat by just a hundredth of a second.

Her dominance did not seem to surprise her teammates or coaches.

When asked which of his teammates were likely to do well, runner Nathan Brooks said, “Shoelle is the fastest of anyone here.”

Bruhin’s head coach, Scott Santella, also had confidence in her ability.

Before her 400 meter race he said she was the best runner in the event, and that it was more important to see if she beat her personal best time of 58.2 seconds than it was to see if she beat the other runners.

When she fell short of that time, Santella was unconcerned.

“We’ve been running her harder in practice than normal,” he said. “We know how far she can go.”

Bruhin said she was trying a new technique that felt good even though it did not result in a better time right away.

“I’ve been trying to maintain speed longer,” she explained.

Bruhin was not the only standout in the women’s track events. Christy Chavira and Caroline Smith both placed in the top nine of their events, which was required to qualify for the finals.

Chavira posted a 4:56.66 time in the 1500 meter run and a 2:30.30 in the 800 meter run, good for seventh in each event.

Smith was seventh in the 200 meter dash at 27.44 and ninth in the 100 meter dash at 12.82.

On the men’s side, Santella said that due to some injuries to top performers they were just “hoping for the best,” without many expectations for top finishes.

Some of the men still impressed, however. Nicholas Murillo-Perez, Sean Fitzgerald and Nathan Brooks were among the top male finishers.

Murillo-Perez finished third in men’s long jump finals with a personal best of 6.77 meters.

Fitzgerald qualified for the finals in the 400 meter hurdles by finishing fourth with a time of 57.41.

Brooks finished tenth in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.12, which was just a hundredth of a second away from qualifying.

Brooks said before his score came in that he felt good about his run.

“I felt loose and I finished strong,” he said.

He said he did not know if he had run well enough to qualify, but he felt good about the effort.

Standouts from other schools included Anyese Kirkland from Santa Monica College, who finished first in the women’s 100 meter hurdles with a time of 15.88 seconds, Cynthia Tuzak from Ventura College, who finished first in the women’s discus with a distance of 37.92 meters, and Dajone Averett from Santa Monica College, who won the men’s 110 meter hurdles with a time of 14.79 seconds.

The City College track team will be in action next at the Western State Conference Finals 10 a.m. Friday, April 26 at Moorpark College.