The Royal track and field team had many athletes step up in their respected events yesterday (4/19) at the County Championships, which were hosted by the Carpinteria Warriors. Their facilities down there really are just amazing and perfect, it just makes one feel good being there watching the competition. The bleachers give spectators a nice view of the track/field and there is a new bleacher section added on to the back stretch of the track. As usual, the meet flowed smooth and was on time. The crowds were entertained and sometimes heckled by the announcer persuading spectators to go and buy “tri-tip sandwiches” from the concession stand, which by the way were pretty darn good. His heckling proved to be successful as I saw many an athlete munching down a tri-tip sandwich! The county championships has always been a great meet to attend. The high schools get a chance to go head-to-head and battle for “bragging-rights”, either on the individual level or amongst the several schools. Here is a list of the schools, just to get an idea of how many athletes were competing: Bishop Diego, Cabrillo, Carpinteria, Cate, Dos Pueblos, Dunn, Laguna Blance, Lompoc, Pioneer Valley, Righetti, San Marcos, Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez, and St. Joseph. Race conditions were almost perfect as at times the wind seemed to gust pretty well and send everyone shivering or zipping up their jackets. Most of the day, overcast conditions proved to dominate, but by the time the 3200 meter races unfolded, the sun had burned through and the winds died down too. It was a challenging, educational (race tactics), confidence booster to many and just fun day!
For us distance people, the 1600 meter races kicked off around 10:30 a.m. By this time there was a steady, but noticeable onshore breeze along with the heavy fog kept the temperature on the cool to almost chilly at times. The girl’s frosh/soph. race was first, featuring Jenny Haden, Bridget Gioiello, Quetzal Vallejo- Howard, and Gaby Wildfeur. Sophomore Jenny Haden surprised everyone, even herself as she snagged fourth place and also picked up four points with her 5:50.91 finish. Freshman Bridget Gioiello ran a nice 6:19.87, which placed her 19th. Freshman Quetazal Vallejo-Howard finished in 21st place with a time of 6:21.69. Gaby Wildfeur rounded out our young ladies squad with a 23rd place finish and posting a time of 6:32.75.
The frosh/soph. boys race was an exciting one as sophomore Evan Bradford had one of the top seed times going into the race. Would the pressure of preforming well on a given day prove to be too much for this young talent, or would he handle it like a champ? That was my concern as the boys toed the line prior to the start. Other sophomores in the race were Jacob Lebell and Brett Stormoen. Our lone freshman in this race was no other than standout Kevin Griffith. At the gun, our San Marcos guys responded quickly and got to the break(the starts were broken up using a 100 meter alley way, and merging at the straight away on the backstretch) in decent position. Evan had taken residence up in fifth position as they clicked off a .68 first lap. The other guys were all running together and came through in .70. Evan con- tinued to move forward through the second lap and moved into third position with a 2:21 half. Jacob and Kevin had split a 2:31 half and Brett a 2:35. During the third lap Evan pulled ahead of Pioneer Valley’s Steven Youngblood to take the lead, the 1200 meter split was 3:50. With 300 meters to go Evan Bradford changed gears and began to pull away from the P.V. runner, but with 150 meters to go P.V. was coming back, but Evan changed gears again and was able to just hold off and match P.V. final kick! Evan got ten points with his win of 4:41.62 to P.V. runner’s 4:41.70!!! Kevin finished in eighth place with a 5:01.68. Jacob ended up in tenth place (5:03.7) and Brett in 17th place (5:18.94).
The girls varsity 1600 meter race was awesome to watch! Santa Barbara High’s Krista Drechsler lead the race from line to line, pretty much unchallenged looking like a stud (5:18.64)! But behind her is where the race had developed. Seniors Angie Afman and Bryn Kass along with junior Sarah Terry were running/work- ing together. They were attempting to hold off Pioneer Valley’s Rebeccah Herrera (5:30.28). The trio opened up with Bryn leading (1:19) Angie and Sarah right on her heels with a 1:20 split through the first quarter and P.V’s. Herrera right behind them. The second lap no change had occurred, but the trio cruised through the half in 2:41 for both Bryn and Angie as Sarah had dropped two seconds back at 2:43. Towards the end of the third lap, Angie passed Bryn (who tucked right behind Angie) and pulled away from Sarah who had been over-taken by P.V.’s Herrera. Angie (2nd position) split a 4:06 1200m with Bryn (3rd position) right there at 4:07 and Sarah (5th position) a bit back at 4:13. On the final lap as the bell rang out Angie and Bryn began to push the pace! It was apparent that Angie and Bryn were safe, finishing 2nd 3rd, but it was Sarah who we were watching. Had she thrown in the towel and settled for a 5th place finish? Crossing the 300 meter point left in the race Sarah suddenly began to look like she came alive and got her feet turning over and began to close on the P.V.’s Herrera in the final 150 meters, but P.V. sensed it and she too began her final kick. Angie ended up in 2nd place (5:26.56) and 8 points , which is a season best! Bryn crossed the line in 3rd place (5:29.95) for 6 points. Sarah was not able to pass the P.V. runner, but her closing final meters were impressive to watch as Sarah finished in 5th place good enough for 2 points and a time of 5:34.97!
The boys varsity race, featured senior Alex Corliss, who has been battling near-injury ailments over the past month and a half. Alex started in the first four lanes, meaning that he was on the inside, but had to worry about the rest of the field out in lanes 5-8. The unthinkable happened as I thought “Oh frick!” Alex had not gotten out fast at all and had what I call the “closed door” effect. As the race rounded the first turn, the runners in lanes 5-8 beat the majority of the runners to the straight-away in lanes 1-4. This caused a major “traffic-jam” as the field of 19 merged. By the time Alex had passed where I had been standing about 150 meters into the race, Alex was probably between 10th to 15th place! Both coach Ince and myself yelled at him to “get out”! The first lap was split with a .69 and he had moved up into 7th position. It was good that he made the move, but over the course of the next lap he continued to try to make up ground with the front runners, burning up precious fuels as the 800 meter mark was reached in 2:15 and into 3rd position! Going into the third lap it was pretty apparent that Alex was beginning to feel the effects of surging up from the rear of the pack to 3rd place. Three Cabrillo runners had been clicking off .65s, by the time Alex had caught up to them one had fallen off from the lead pack and the second had begun to fall too. Along the home stretch, with the last 450 meters Alex moved into 2nd position. As the bell sounded the last lap the remaining Cabrillo runner Miguel Ortiz had a decent 10 meter lead on Alex. Alex continued to press the pace and try to reel in the last remaining Cabrillo runner, but there was no steam left in his legs. He ran a gutsy and painful race, but was able to score a nice 8 points with a time of 4:31.65 to Ortiz’s 4:26.21!! Hopefully a lesson had been taught from this experience at the start of the race! Heh! 
We had a handful of distance runners in the 800 meter races. Girls frosh/soph; Quetzal Vallejo-Howard ran a 2:48.26 for 13th place and Gaby Wildfeur ran to a 23rd place finish with a time of 3:05.79. In the boys frosh/soph, freshman Kevin Griffith doubled back from the mile to split a solid .65 first lap and came back with a second split of 1:10 (.70) to finish with a great time of 2:15.51 for 7th place, just missing the chance to get that one point! The girls varsity 800 meter race featured Angie Afman along with mid-distance standouts of senior Lisa Reed and junior Kalley Ridgway. From the gun all three girls charged to the front and lead the way, 1-2-3. Each split .75 (1:15) for their first lap, but then things began to get interesting with 400 meters to go. Kalley, usuing her long legs began to pull away from Angie and Lisa. Lisa was in front of Angie, but with 250 meters to go, Angie began to pull alongside of Lisa who began to “hit the wall” in the final straight-away. San Marcos ended up sweeping the race, going 1-2-3! Kalley closed with a time of 2:27.78 for 1st and 10 points as Angie was second with 8 points, closed with a .72 last lap for a solid time of 2:28.15. Lisa was 3rd with 6 points in 2:30.00!
By the time the 3200 meter races began, the weather had changed for the better. The wind had begun to subside and the fog moved out, letting in the sun to warm things up. It must have been that “warming up” effect b/c our 2 milers really hammered out some nice times. Out of the 10 entered to race, we had 6 personal records (P.R.s) set! The boys frosh/soph started things out nicely as Evan Bradford came back after his mile win to run away from the same Pioneer Valley runner in the 3200 meter for the win. Evan’s 10 points came from racing a smart and tactical race to the time of 10:19.23. Sophomore Jacob Lebell also doubling back from the mile finished in 6th place to grab that last point and also grabbed himself a p.r. of 10:59.23! Brett Stormoen ran to a 9th place finish of 11:07.97, but did not realize that freshman Jordan Carlson was gunning for him the entire race! Jordan had a huge p.r. (11:24.31) which placed him 13th. Jordan ran his first mile in 5:45, but then came back with a 5:41 second mile! Awesome job young Carlson! The girls varsity featured the same two from the earlier 1600 meters; Bryn Kass, Sarah Terry. They were accompanied by senior Esther Flores and junior Kate Bowdle. Bryn, Sarah, and Esther packed up together and began to click off 1:26 quarters. All three came through the 800 in 2:52, they changed the lead some, but all three came through the mile in 5:51! It was awesome to see three blue San Marcos runners in the front holding off Kelly Major of Santa Ynez. As they came through the 2400 meter mark Esther (9:05) had dropped back as both Bryn (8:56) and Sarah (9:02) continued to push the pace. Bryn ran herself to a p.r. of 11:51.58 for 1st place and the 10 points, while Sarah finished in 4th place (4 points) with a time of 12:11.72 and Esther finished in 5th place (2 points). Junior Kate Bowdle finished with a p.r. of 13:21.00 for a 11th place finish. Our last two distance athletes to race were our senior boys; Mark Berquist and Andrew Sanchez. Going into the meet, Berquist had the goal of shooting to hold .75s as long as he could. We knew Cabrillo would have a handful of good runners in there too, so it was going to be ‘easy’ for Mark to find them and just turn off his mind and get behind them and just cruise with them. It was great, Mark clicked of .73s for the first 6 or 7 laps (mile split: 5:00). He sat behind three Cabrillo runners who, by the 2400 meter point, Mark found himself in 2nd place and split a 7:30 at 2400m. He came back to finish with a new P.R. of 9:57.21 and 8 points! While Mark was doing that feat, Andrew had been looking strong and confident with his own race. Andrew found his groove and began to click off .76 quarters, coming through the mile in 5:19! Andrew ended up in 8th place after he stopped the clock at 10:45.66, a new P.R.!
So, by the end of the meet the team scoring looked something like this…
Frosh/Soph. Boys-2nd place (88 points) Frosh/Soph. Girls-2nd place (127 points)
Varisity Boys- 7th (37 points) Varsity Girls – 1st (155 points)
Earning those scores, San Marcos was able to clench the overall grand team sweepstakes championship!
