Track and field captures nine league event championships

Ramona High School’s girls and boys won nine Valley League championships during the league track and field meet May 15 at Oceanside High School.

Those league champions automatically qualified for the CIF meet with preliminaries scheduled for May 23 at Mount Carmel High School. Athletes or relay teams meeting the CIF meet qualifying standard also automatically qualify, and one other Ramona athlete met the standard in two events. During the week at-large lanes and field event flight berths at the CIF meet may also be awarded.

“Hopefully I can get some other kids in,” said Sherri Edwards, head coach for the boys and girls.

Holly Stallman will compete in four girls events. The junior won the 100-meter dash in 12.30 seconds, the 200-meter dash in 26.02 seconds, and the long jump with a personal record of 17 feet 4-1/2 inches.

Jenny Rivera, Morgann Wilson, Tuesday Christopher and Stallman were the 4x100 relay team that won the league meet race in 50.42 seconds.

Anna Sundrud accounted for Ramona’s other two girls league championships. The senior won the 800 race in 2:24.95 and set a personal record of 5:31.51 to take first in the 1,600 run.

Ramona also produced the boys 800 league champion when junior Logan White finished in 2:04.64. The Bulldogs’ other two boys league champions are also juniors. Isaac Smith cleared 6-3 in the high jump and Brandon Hankins had a pole vault height of 12-6.

Oceanside junior Charles Lenford threw the shot put 61-8 and the discus 174-7 to win both boys events. Lenford and Ramona junior Connor Anderson train together and are friends, and the competition between them at the league meet resulted in Anderson’s second-place throws of 50-9 in the shot put and 170-10 in the discus. Both of Anderson’s distances met CIF automatic qualifying standards.

Until last year, the league meet consisted of preliminaries one day and finals later in the week, but the May 2014 fires forced some leagues to combine those into a single meet with multiple heats. North County Conference coaches supported adopting that for future years due to the extra day of practice and one fewer day of travel. The May 15 morning rain subsided in time for the Valley League meet to be held under drier conditions.

“It cleared up pretty nice,” Edwards said. “It was a little bit windy.”

The Valley League meet gave medals to the top four finishers in each event. White was joined by two other Ramona medalists in the boys 800 meter race. James Meskell was third at 2:07.47 and Eder Landgrave had the fourth-place time of 2:09.07.

Ramona’s girls took three medals in the 400 race. Christopher posted a second-place time of 1:02.77, Rayna Valade finished in 1:03.16 for third place, and Katherine Lorentz had a 1:03.63 performance for fourth place.

Rivera won two individual medals, taking third in the 200 dash at 27.24 seconds and fourth in the 100 dash with a time of 13.16 seconds. Perla Cruz had a pair of third-place finishes, completing the 1,600 race in 5:42.76 and the 3,200 event in 13:11.65.

In the 100 hurdles Wilson was third at 16.67 seconds and Emily Sojourner placed fourth with a 16.68-second performance. Sojourner also had the fourth-place 300 hurdles time of 50.01 seconds.

Christopher took fourth place in the triple jump with a distance of 31-11. Makenna Krueger cleared 6-11 in the pole vault to share fourth place.

Christopher earned a fourth medal at the league meet by leading off the 4x400 team that also consisted of Crenshaw, Valade and Lorentz. Their time of 4:18.93 placed second.

Gabe Plendcio earned two medals for third-place finishes in boys races with times of 4:27.98 in the 1,600 competition and 10:03.15 in the 3,200 run. Joey Jauregui was fourth in the 3,200 race at 10:14.98. A long jump of 20-8 1/2 gave Garrett Binkley third place.

The Bulldogs closed out dual meet competition at home May 7 against Oceanside. The girls’ victory gave the team a 3-1 record and second place in the final league standings.

“I was pleased with that,” Edwards said.

Oceanside defeated Ramona’s boys, who finished with a 1-3 league dual meet record and fourth place in the standings, but the Bulldogs obtained 26 out of a possible 27 points in the three distance races.