Jordan, boys 4x100 relay team set school records

Ramona High School’s track and field athletes set two school records and one meet record at the Jaguar Invitational meet April 17 at Valley Center High School.

Tyler Jordan’s distance in the boys high jump of 6’8” not only won the meet but also gave the senior a new school record, bettering the 6’7” he had cleared last year. Jordan was an inch short of the meet record of 6’9”, but instead of trying to clear that distance he had the bar set at 6’10” and was narrowly unsuccessful trying to clear the higher elevation.

The distance is also the highest for any athlete in the CIF San Diego Section this season.

The boys 4x100 relay team of Zach Kovach, Seth Drake, Nate Lutu and Ryan Morgan won their event with a time of 42.94 seconds, which also set a school record. Dean Faddis, Morgan, Lutu and Drake ran the 4x100 in 42.95 seconds last year.

The 2010 time was the third-fastest of the year for a San Diego Section relay team.

Jordan’s previous high jump record and the relegated 4x100 record had been set on May 23, 2009, during the CIF preliminary meet.

The boys 4x400 team of Kovach, Walker Poortinga, Tim Wertz and Morgan set a meet record with a time of 3:22.97, which was also the fastest San Diego Section time of the year.

Morgan added wins in the individual 200-meter and 400-meter races, Preston Johnson took first place in the boys shot put, and Logan Peterson had the longest boys discus throw.

“We got a lot of first place finishes in an invitational, which bodes well for the end of the season,” said Ramona head coach Steve Albanese.

In Ramona’s first track and field competition since the Elite Eight Invitational meet on April 3, the Bulldogs traveled to Orange Glen for an April 15 dual meet. The boys and the girls improved their records in league dual meets to 2-1. The boys won by a 102-30 score while the girls were on the top end of a 95-33 margin.

“It was kind of a tuneup for our big invitational,” Albanese said.

The Orange Glen meet saw Ramona take first place in 13 of the 16 boys events and 11 of the 16 girls events. Jordan cleared 6’4” in the high jump while winning the long jump with a distance of 18’7”, and Becca Hickle won two individual girls events with a long jump of 13 feet 2-1/2 inches and a triple jump of 28 feet 6 inches.

Johnson threw the shot put 48’5”, Peterson hurled the discus 148’0”, Jared Engler’s distance of 12’6” won the boys pole vault while Ali Geber had the top girls pole vault distance of 6’0”, and Sydney Manley won the girls high jump by clearing 4’0”.

The dual meet saw Ramona win the boys 4x100, girls 4x100, boys 4x400, and girls 4x400 relays. The boys winners included Morgan in the 100-meter dash, Kovach in the 200-meter dash, Dylan Blankenbaker in the 1,600-meter run, Chance Varnardo-Richardson in the 3,200-meter race, Daniel Drake in the 110-meter hurdles, and Quincy Watts in the 300-meter hurdles. First place finishers in girls running events included Caitlin Choy in the 200-meter dash, Kendall Kohler in the 400-meter race, Lauren Cortez in the 1,600-meter event, Chelsey Cortez in the 3,200-meter contest, and Kelly Helman in the 100-meter hurdles.

“It’s on a dirt track, so the times are quite slower,” Albanese said of the Orange Glen performances.

At the Jaguar Invitational Morgan had a time of 22.43 seconds to win the 200-yard dash. Kovach’s time of 22.52 seconds won his heat while placing second overall behind Morgan. Morgan won the 400-yard dash with a time of 49.83 seconds while Wertz’s time of 52.65 seconds in that event placed second in his heat and eighth overall. Peterson threw the discus 149’7” while Quinten Wright was third with a throw of 140’0”. Johnson’s winning shot put toss went 47 feet 0-1/2 inches and Peterson threw the shot put 39 feet 10 inches to place 12th.

In the 100-meter dash Kovach won his heat and was second overall with a time of 11.19 seconds while Seth Drake was third overall and second in his heat at 11.30 seconds. Daniel Drake won his 110-meter hurdles heat, although his time of 16.90 seconds placed tenth overall.

Chelsey Cortez ran the girls 3,200-meter race in 11:25 to finish second. In the boys 3,200-meter race Blankenbaker’s time of 9:45.50 placed second, Varnardo-Richardson was fourth at 9:54.86, and Alec Richardson finished seventh with a time of 9:58.42. All three boys times were personal records.

Varnardo-Richardson also set a personal record in the boys 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:38.52, which placed eighth. In the boys 800-meter race Nathan Morgan’s time of 2:02.11 placed second in his heat and third overall.

Erika Stinchcomb’s time of 1:01.90 in the girls 400-meter run was the second-fastest in her heat and placed eighth overall.

Kohler had a time of 1:02.62 in that event to place 10th.

Ramona’s girls 4x400 relay team of Kohler, Tessa Balcom, Amy Jordan and Stinchcomb had a sixth-place time of 4:22.09.

Trevor Dotson was fifth in the boys long jump at 20 feet 4-1/2 inches. Evan Bray and Engler both cleared 11’0” in the pole vault, which was the eighth-place distance. Ramona’s best finish in a girls field event was the 89’9” discus throw of Kayla Lawler, which shared 10th place.

The Bulldogs return to Valley Center today for a Valley League dual meet.