Point sweeps in last track and field events give Jaguars win over Bulldogs

By Joe Naiman

During Ramona High School’s boys track and field meet April 3, Valley Center swept the 23 possible points in the final two running events and the last field event for a 75-60 victory.

The 10 running events conclude with the 3,200-meter race and the 4x400 relay. The last of the six field events is the triple jump.

“I was hoping for a win,” said head coach Sherri Edwards. “It was close, but it didn’t work out.”

Edwards has hope for the Bulldogs’ Valley League meet Thursday, hosted by Orange Glen. Orange Glen lost to Del Norte 103-32, which gives the Bulldogs a reasonable chance for their first league win.

Despite the loss to Valley Center, Edwards was satisfied with the Ramona athletes’ performance in the league opener.

“I’m happy that we were competitive and that it was close,” she said.

A high school meet begins with the 4x100 relay. Ramona’s quartet of Garrett Dart, Tanarat Crowe, Brandon Gansch and Garrett Binkley won with a time of 44.53 seconds, which was the fastest of the year for Ramona in that event.

The Bulldogs swept the 9 points in the 100-meter dash. Crowe had a time of 11.56 seconds, Kevin Ochoa finished the race in 11.74 seconds and Garrett Binkley finished third at 11.75 seconds.

Ramona had the top two distances in the pole vault. Brandon Hankins cleared 11 feet, 6 inches while John Jones, who joined the track and field team this year as a senior, earned his first varsity points with a vault of 9-6.

The Bulldogs also had the top two times in the 400-meter run. Kevin Carmona needed 52.98 seconds to win the race while Austin Minnocci completed his lap in 53.04 seconds.

High jumpers and pole vaulters are allowed three attempts at each distance. Ramona’s Dylan Shields and Valley Center’s Jake Newman each cleared 5-6 in the high jump before making their attempts with the bar 5-8 off the ground. Both missed their first two attempts at 5-8. Newman also missed his third attempt, but Shields cleared his for first-place points.

Ramona’s other first-place finish was in the 300-meter hurdles. Wyatt Scott had a time of 43.25 in that event.

Scott placed second in the 110-meter hurdles at 17.28 seconds. Ramona sophomore Sean Stemm was third in that race with 17.97 seconds, which gave him his first varsity point.

Valley Center’s distance runners include Bannon Greer, who won both the 1,600-meter race and the 800-meter competition. Ramona’s Max Edwards finished second in both of those races, taking 4:43.8 in the 1,600-meter run, and 2:01.86 in the 800-meter event. The 800-meter time bettered Edwards’ personal record by three seconds.

Crowe was second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.97 seconds. Gansch finished third in that race 24.20 seconds after the starter’s gun was fired.

Binkley had a second-place long jump of 18-7. Dart placed third in that event with a distance of 18-6. Ramona’s third-place shot put point was the result of Ochoa achieving a personal record of 40-3.

Ramona’s best finishes in the triple jump and the 3,200-meter run were fourth place, which is not worth any scoring points. The winning team of a relay race receives all 5 points; Ramona’s 4x400 team was leading until Valley Center’s Greer took the baton.

“All of a sudden at the end of the meet it just kind of fell apart,” Edwards said. “We can’t win meets getting no points.”