Bulldog boys close track and field dual meet season with win

By Joe Naiman

Ramona High School’s final boys track and field dual meet of the 2013 season was also the first victory for the Bulldogs.

Ramona’s 92-43 win May 2 at home against Orange Glen gave the Bulldogs a final season record of 1-6 in dual meets, including 1-3 in Valley League competition.

“It was a nice way to close the dual meets,” said head coach Sherri Edwards.

The Bulldogs were nearly perfect in the 10 running events, sweeping the three scoring positions in five of those along with the only scoring position in the 4x100 relay.

Nathan Cherek, Colton Wood, Morgen Schmidt, and Garrett Dart opened the meet by winning the 4x100 relay in 45.1 seconds. Cherek won the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.2 seconds while Schmidt was second at 11.5 seconds and Brandon Gansch placed third with an 11.6-second performance. Cherek’s time of 23.2 seconds won the 200-meter dash while Wood was second at 23.5 seconds and Christian Dominguez had a third-place time of 23.9 seconds.

Edwards rested distance star Forrest Riley for this week’s league meet, but the Bulldogs still swept the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter events. Max Edwards won the 1,600-meter race in 4:54.6 while Wesley Hardin posted a time of 4:56.3 and Cory Thomas finished the metric mile in 5:11.9. Tristan Stidham posted a winning time of 10:56.6 in the 3,200-meter run while Joey Jauregui was second at 11:29.0 and Thomas had a third-place time of 11:33.0.

Wyatt Scott won the 110-meter hurdles 16.1 seconds after the starter’s gun was fired while Dustin Hager reached the finish line in 16.7 seconds and Sean Stemm finished third at 17.7 seconds. In the 300-meter hurdles, Scott was second at 42.4 seconds and Hager’s time of 42.8 seconds placed third.

Orange Glen’s Bevon Wilson’s 400-meter run victory gave the Patriots the five first-place points, but Austin Minnocci’s lap of 52.9 seconds provided Ramona with three second-place points and Dominguez earned the third-place point with a performance of 54.6 seconds.

Cesar Corona won the 800-meter race with a time of 2.06.9. Tellames’ second-place finish was followed by Hardin’s third-place result of 2:12.3.

Although the Bulldogs did not sweep any field events, they took first and second in both throwing competitions even though thrower Paul Mehaffie was ill and did not compete. Daniel vanTol set a personal record of 49’ in the shot put.

“He’d been throwing 50 feet in practice,” Edwards said.

Michael Hastings placed second in the shot put with a throw of 41’7”.

Freshman Connor Anderson set a personal record of 120’3-1/2” to win the discus throw.

“That was exciting,” Edwards said.

Second place in the discus went to vanTol, who had a distance of 120’2-1/2 inches.

The Bulldogs also took first place in the pole vault; Darrell Millen cleared 11’.

Wood and Cherek took second and third in the long jump with respective distances of 18’9” and 18’1”. Dart had a second-place triple jump mark of 34’2” while Gansch was third at 33’9”. Wood cleared 5’4” in the high jump for second.

The league meet finals will take place Friday at Valley Center High School.

“I’m looking forward to league. I think we’ll do pretty well,” Edwards said.