Sundevils top Bulldogs in track and field events
The realignment of the North County Conference means that Ramona High School’s track and field team had to face Mount Carmel in a Valley League dual meet. The Sundevils, who will compete in Division I for the CIF meet, won the boys and the girls competition against Division II Ramona April 16 at Mount Carmel.
“I’m disappointed that we didn’t get the win, but I’m happy that our kids really performed well,” said Coach Bob Verhoest. “Everybody did well and did what they were supposed to do.”
Mount Carmel’s boys took a 75-61 victory over the Bulldogs.
“You hate to get beat by Mount Carmel, but they’re a pretty good school,” Verhoest said. “We hung with them for a long time.”
While the Sundevils took first place in four of the six boys field events, including the high jump competition decided on fewest misses at lower distances Ramona won six of the 10 running events.
“Couldn’t overcome a few little obstacles,” Verhoest said. “We got hurt a little bit in the pole vault and the shot.”
Mount Carmel swept the three shot put, scoring positions to earn nine points while taking the first two pole vault positions for an additional eight points. The Sundevils also had the top two long jump distances.
Ramona’s Lyndon Scott won the triple jump with a distance of 42 feet, and Logan Peterson threw the discus 132 feet for the Bulldogs’ other field event win. Three high jumpers cleared 6’4”, although the tiebreaking criteria of misses at lower distances relegated Scott to second and Tyler Jordan to third.
The Bulldogs won both relay races. Seth Drake, Dean Faddis, Ryan Morgan and Mikey Head had a time of 43.2 seconds in the 4x100 while the 4x400 team of Morgan, Matt Laws, Tanner Jorgenson and Israel Marquez had a season-best time of 3:26.
Morgan was a quadruple winner against Mount Carmel, also taking first with a 22.3-second time in the 200-meter dash and posting a time of 49.1 seconds while winning the 400-meter run. Seth Drake won the 100-meter dash in 10.8 seconds and Tyler Creswell’s time of 15.0 seconds gave him first place in the 110-meter hurdles.
Mount Carmel’s girls won 15 of the 16 events with Ramona freshman Kelly Helman taking first in the 100-meter hurdles. Helman had a time of 18.2 seconds.
“She’s really coming around pretty well,” Verhoest said.
Ramona’s second-place finishers included Brittany Balcom, who set a personal record by running the 1,600-meter race in 5:17.
Balcom then posted a time of 2:24 in the 800-meter run for another second-place result.
“She really had a big day for our team,” Verhoest said.
“We have a lot of freshman girls right now,” Verhoest said. “They’re really going to be a pretty good team next year if they all stick it out together.”
The Bulldogs host Valley Center in a dual meet this afternoon and will travel to Otay Ranch for Saturday’s Mustang Relays.
“We just keep moving forward,” Verhoest said. “We’re going to take one week at a time.”