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Bulldog track and field splits at Valley Center

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Ramona High School’s boys track and field team defeated Valley Center April 23 at the Jaguars’ facility while Ramona’s girls were on the losing end of the score against Valley Center that day.

The boys team defeated Valley Center by an 84-50 score while taking first place in 11 of the 16 events. Valley Center had the top time or distance in 11 of the 16 girls events to give the Jaguar girls a 93-42 victory. The results improve Ramona’s boys to 3-1 in league dual meets while dropping the girls’ record to 2-2.

Valley Center’s head coach is Mike Cummings, who is the also the CIF meet director. Valley Center won the 2001 CIF Division II championship under Cummings, who previously led Orange Glen’s boys to a CIF runner-up finish and has twice coached the Jaguar girls to runner-up status.

“He has a very strong program, so it was encouraging for the guys to get a win,” said Ramona head coach Steve Albanese. “Most of the performances weren’t very strong compared to the invitational the week before, but we still ended up on top.”

Ramona’s previous meet was also held at Valley Center High School. The Bulldogs set two school records and one meet record at the Jaguar Invitational meet April 17 and several Ramona athletes set personal records.

“It’s hard to come off a bunch of PRs in a big invitational and expect to do the same thing the same week at a dual meet,” Albanese said.

The dual meet was originally scheduled for April 22 before that day’s rain forced a one-day postponement. Not only did Ramona’s boys sweep the discus throw scoring positions, but the three Bulldog throwers set personal records. Logan Peterson, who had won the Jaguar Invitational shot put with a distance of 149’7”, also won the dual meet with a throw of 164’11”. Quinten Wright, whose 140’0” distance was third at the invitational, placed second in the dual meet with a toss of 146’4”, and Rocco Hemphill’s distance of 142’2” gave him third place.

Ramona’s boys won five of the six field events at the dual meet. Tyler Jordan won the high jump with a distance of 6’4” and the long jump at 20 feet 6-1/4 inches. Preston Johnson’s shot put throw of 46 feet 7 1/2 inches didn’t match his winning throw at the Jaguar Invitational but still won the dual meet. Jared Engler cleared 13’0” in the pole vault.

Ramona’s boys swept the relay races against Valley Center with Seth Drake, Zach Kovach, Trevor Dotson and Ryan Morgan winning the 4x100 in 43.59 seconds and Kovach, Drake, Tim Wertz and Morgan winning the 4x400 in 3:40.71. Kovach’s time of 51.15 seconds won the 100-meter dash, Morgan won the 200-meter dash in 22.29 seconds and the 400-meter run in 50.84 seconds, and Chance Varnardo-Richardson’s time of 10:08.89 gave him first place in the 3,200-meter run.

Ramona’s girls won their 4x100 race with Caitlin Choy, Kendall Kohler, Paige Conroy and Erika Stinchcomb posting a time of 52.40 seconds. Choy also won two individual events, taking 13.40 seconds to complete the 100-meter dash and 27.35 seconds to run the 200-meter dash. Stinchcomb won the long jump with a distance of 14 feet 6-1/2 inches, and Lauren Cortez won the girls 3,200-meter race with a time of 12:35.97.

The Bulldogs host Westview today while younger members of the team travel to El Capitan High School on Saturday for the Dick Wilkins Frosh-Soph Invitational.

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