Stallman, Jackson win league championships
By Joe Naiman
Two of Ramona High School’s girls track and field athletes won league championships at the Valley League meet at Valley Center High School.
Sophomore Holly Stallman won both the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. Senior Courtney Jackson had the top height in the pole vault.
Stallman and Jackson will be competing this Saturday at the CIF San Diego Section meet finals at Mt. Carmel High School. In addition to the individual event competitors, Ramona’s relay teams will run at the CIF finals.
The fires in San Diego County that began May 13 eliminated plans to hold the league preliminary races and field events May 13 and the league finals May 16, so the league meet was combined into seeded races May 19. Stallman, who injured her back during the April 30 dual meet against Oceanside and hadn’t competed in a running event since April 24, posted times of 12.54 seconds in the 100-meter dash and 26.30 seconds in the 200-meter dash.
“I’m just happy to have her back,” said head coach Sherri Edwards.
Edwards noted that Stallman hadn’t made a full recovery as of the league meet.
“She wasn’t pain-free,” Edwards said.
Jackson cleared 10 feet, 7 inches for her pole vault league championship. Kim Klarer was fourth with a distance of 9-1.
Courtney Ford, Morgan Wilson, Hannah Farhat and Stallman represented Ramona in the 4x100 relay. The quartet finished second, behind Del Norte, with a time of 51.19 seconds. The meet was the first for Ford, who had a strained quad muscle, since April 24. Ramona’s 4x400 team of Tuesday Christopher, Katherine Lorentz, Teresa Leon and Anna Sundrud posted a third-place time of 4:20.16.
Sundrud placed second in the 800-meter race at 2:29.74 while Leon was fourth in that event with a time of 2:34.56. Ford had a third-place triple jump distance of 32 6-1/2. Karah Banegas was fifth in the shot put with a throw of 32 feet and sixth in the discus with a distance of 99 feet. The 400-meter race saw Lorentz finish fifth at 1:04.01 and Christopher earn the sixth-place medal with a time of 1:04.22. Perla Cruz was sixth in the 1,600-meter race with a time of 5:53.64. Wilson had a 100-meter hurdles time of 17.36 seconds for sixth place.
The top nine Division I finishers and the top nine Division II finishers in each event at the CIF preliminaries May 24 advanced to the finals; the top nine for Division I and Division II combined advanced to the “A” race or field event flight while the other nine will compete in the “B” event. The top three finishers from the A race or flight qualify for the state meet June 6-7.
Jackson’s CIF preliminaries height of 11-1 was second in Division II and placed her in Saturday’s A flight.
“Courtney Jackson had a good day,” Edwards said.
Klarer cleared 9-7 for eighth place among Division II pole vaulters.
Stallman qualified for the A race in the 100-meter dash; her time of 12.49 seconds was third among Division II runners and fifth overall. Her time of 25.84 seconds in the 200-meter dash was worth second place among Division II runners but only gave her a lane in Saturday’s B race. Both relay teams earned fifth place among Division II schools and a B race qualification; Ford, Wilson, Farhat and Stallman took 50.38 seconds in the 4x100 relay while Sundrud, Christopher, Leon and Lorentz completed the 4x400 relay in 4:13.95.
Lorentz and Christopher also competed in the individual 400-meter race, although neither advanced to the finals. Lorentz completed her lap in 1:03.07 while Christopher had a personal record of 1:03.36. Ford’s triple jump distance of 33 1-1/2 placed 12th among Division II athletes and did not qualify her for the finals. Sundrud’s 800-meter time of 2:27.76 gave her 13th place among Division II runners.
“I was pleased overall with the day,” Edwards said.