Bulldogs sweep four running events against Pirates
By Joe Naiman
Ramona High School’s boys track and field team ended the Valley League dual meet season with a 1-3 record, but in four running events during a 77-59 loss at Oceanside the Bulldogs swept the three scoring positions.
“I thought that the boys were competitive,” said head coach Sherri Edwards. “I’m happy that we didn’t get blown out by them.”
Only dual meet records determine team league championships. The Valley League meet, which will be at Valley Center High School, will begin with preliminaries May 13 before concluding with finals May 16, and will result in individual league champions and in CIF meet qualifiers.
“We obviously want to try to do well and place high,” Edwards said.
In the six non-hurdles individual running events Ramona scored 44 out of a possible 54 points against the Pirates on April 30. Oceanside scored 46 field event points out of a possible 54.
“They have some really good jumpers and good hurdlers, and it was just a little too much for us,” Edwards said.
The Bulldogs swept the three distance races. In the 800-meter event Logan White had a time of 2:07.07, Colin McNulty finished in 2:07.93, and Gabe Plendcio was third at 2:13. Plendcio won the 1,600-meter race in 4:54.07 with McNulty taking 4:56 and Joey Jauregui finishing in 4:58. James Meskell was the 3,200-meter race winner; his time of 11:12.70 beat out the 11:12.71 of teammate Max Edwards while Eric Szymanski was third at 11:31.73. McNulty and Szymanski earned their first varsity points at the meet.
The Bulldogs also swept the 100-meter dash. Tanarat Crowe finished in 11.46 seconds, Kevin Ochoa completed the race in 11.6 seconds, and Garrett Binkley had a time of 12.1 seconds.
Christian Dominguez finished second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.07 seconds while Brandon Gansch was third at 24.12 seconds. Kevin Carmona had a time of 53.07 seconds to place second in the 400-meter run while Austin Minnocci had the third-place time of 53.41 seconds.
Wyatt Scott placed second in both hurdles races, taking 16.1 seconds in the 110-meter event and 43.22 seconds in the 300-meter competition. Keyshaun Crichlow was third in the 110-meter hurdles at 16.2 seconds.
Michael Hastings threw the shot put 42 feet, 8 inches to give the Bulldogs their only second-place points in a field event. Connor Anderson had the third-place throw of 41 8-1/2. Anderson also placed third in the discus with a throw of 132-8. Brandon Hankins had a third-place pole vault distance of 11 feet. Dylan Shields cleared 5-6 in the high jump for third place. A long jump of 19 7-1/2 gave Parker Christopher third place in that event.
Several of the Bulldogs competed in the May 2 Escondido Invitational meet. Hankins cleared 11-1 to win the open pole vault competition.
“That started out pretty exciting,” Sherri Edwards said.
Max Edwards was scratched from the invitational 800-meter race due to a foot blister, but Meskell won his heat with a personal record of 2:05.76. Edwards set a 1,600-meter personal record of 4:26.70, which gave him seventh place in the invitational race. Scott was third in his 300-meter hurdles heat with a time of 43.25 seconds. Hastings competed in the invitational shot put and had a sixth-place throw of 47-7. The invitational discus flight included Anderson’s 10th-place distance of 128-7.
The Dick Wilkins Frosh-Soph Invitational meet took place May 3 at Del Norte High School. Although Jauregui was seeded last among the 17 sophomore invitational runners in the 3,200-meter race due to his previous personal record of 10:30, his time of 10:07.67 placed eighth.
“He just had a huge improvement,” coach Edwards said.
Anderson’s throw of 134-11 gave him third place in the sophomore invitational discus. Danny Edwards set a personal record of 55.06 seconds while placing fourth in the freshman seeded 400-meter race, and he placed seventh in the freshman invitational long jump with a distance of 18 6-1/2.