COSTA MESA, Calif. — The Soka University Lions opened their 2026 indoor season at the OCC Season Opener hosted by Orange Coast College on January 30th, with a handful of athletes across men's and women's events gaining early-season experience.
Men's Highlights
In the sprints,
Lenny Washiya got the men's campaign underway with a 7.50 in the 60m, finishing 4th in his section.
Rocky Mogstad was close behind in section three, clocking 7.48 to finish 2nd in that heat.
Distance runners
Eiichi Takemura,
Daiki Katsukawa, and
Mark Pliushchanskii all competed in the 1500m, finishing 10th, 11th, and 12th in their section with times of 4:51.23, 5:00.68, and 5:09.75, respectively.
Lev Nakamura also got on the track in the 800m, finishing 7th in his section with a 2:13.38 to round out the men's distance efforts.
Women's Highlights
Miki Kawamura led Soka's women on the track, finishing 4th in her section of the 60m with an 8.78.
Hiromi Kawashima ran 8.82 in the same heat, placing 5th.
In the 800m,
Sara Siegler (2:54.74) and
Jasmine Lorenzo (2:58.39) both competed in section one, with
Tomoe Hamazaki adding a 3:05.58 in the same race.
Anna Kawaguchi ran 2:54.63 in section two. Char Bolton rounded out the distance entries with a 6:10.72 in the 1500m.
Mili Fukada represented Soka in the field, tying for 6th in the women's high jump with a clearance of 1.35m.
