Ramona’s Jackson wins pole vault at Escondido Invite

By Joe Naiman

Ramona High School junior Courtney Jackson won the girls pole vault at the Escondido Invitational meet April 26.

Jackson, who has been adjusting to a new pole that allows for higher distances, fell short of her personal record but still cleared 10’9”.

“I was really happy,” said head coach Sherri Edwards.

Jackson had cleared 10’ in winning the pole vault April 25 during the Bulldogs’ dual meet at Del Norte. She was one of five Bulldogs to earn first-place points in Ramona’s 92-38 loss to the Nighthawks.

One of those winners was freshman Holly Stallman, whose time of 12.93 seconds won the 100-meter dash. Courtney Ford finished third in that race with a performance of 13.28 seconds.

Although Stallman’s time of 26.30 seconds in the 200-meter dash was only worth second place and was her first loss of her high school career in an individual dual meet race, it bettered her previous personal record of 26.73 seconds.

“That was a big drop for her,” Edwards said. “I was really excited for her.”

Stallman also fell short of the school record of 26.20 seconds set in 1977 by Rose Kalabsa, who is now Ramona High School teacher Rose Darrough.

Carlee Roberts won the 100-meter hurdles race in 17.65 seconds.

“Just out-leaned the girl from Del Norte,” Edwards said. “That was a really exciting race.”

The second-place time in that race was 17.66 seconds. Roberts added a personal record of 51.67 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles race to give Ramona a third-place point in that event.

Karah Banegas threw the shot put 32’6-1/2” for first place while Kristy Banegas had a third-place distance of 27’8-1/2”. Karah Banegas earned second place in the discus with a throw of 91’8” and Claire Hagan threw the discus 82’7” for third place.

Ramona’s other win was in the high jump, in which Callie Guasti cleared 4’8”. Guasti withdrew from the triple jump due to foot pain and did not place in the long jump. Ford’s long jump distance of 16’1” gave her second place in that event.

Several of Ramona’s younger athletes returned to Del Norte for the April 27 Dick Wilkins Frosh-Soph Invitational meet. Stallman set a personal record of 12.66 seconds while finishing third in the invitational 100-meter dash. Her time of 26.56 seconds in the 200-meter dash placed fourth.

Hannah Farhat ran in the open freshman 100-meter dash and placed sixth with a time of 13.53 seconds. Freshman Ciara Lucas, who missed the dual meet due to illness, ran in the open 800-meter race and set a personal record of 2:32.92 while taking fourth place.

Ramona earned a lane in the invitational freshman 4x400 meter race and finished third with a time of 4:21.35. Stallman opened with a lap of 1:07.1, Farhat completed her 400 meters in 1:07.5, Katherine Lorentz had the baton for 1:05.4, and Lucas anchored the race with a 1:06.0 lap. (The individual lap splits utilized hand-held timing and may differ from the electronic timing used for the team finishes.)

The Bulldogs placed fifth in the freshman invitational 4x100 race. Stallman, Farhat, Diana Turvey, and Emily Sojourner posted a time of 51.89 seconds.

Ramona closes out the season’s dual meet competition Thursday at home against Orange Glen. The Valley League meet preliminaries will take place Tuesday, May 7, at Valley Center High School.