SHASTA LAKE - Ignore the Roman numeral after the word division when it comes to the Northern Section Division II prep track and field championships. There were plenty of very strong event contenders and favorites at the meet held at Central Valley High School on Friday regardless of what division we're talking about. When it comes to team standings, the West Valley High School girls and the Yreka boys are above the rest of the field. Yet, when you talk about individual event title contenders heading into next week's Northern Section Masters Track and Field Championships at West Valley High School, a lot of them were at the D-II meet.

In the girls standings, West Valley has several standouts on its way to at least the Eagles' fourth straight divisional section crown. West Valley crushed the field with 182 points while Yreka was distant second with 97 points. Orland was third with 79 and Central Valley was fourth with 38. Headlining the Eagles effort was senior Paige Adkins, who won the girls shot put in 37-6½ with best mark in the section this year. Adkins followed that with a personal-best win in the discus with a toss of 117-1 and second place effort in the long jump at 15-10¼ behind Yreka junior Alexis Yaple (15-11).

Then there are the distance runners in sophomore Hannah Dorman and senior Corissa Storms. Dorman won the 1,600 in 5:32.37 while Storms was second at 5:36.74. Storms won the 3,200 in 12:45.30, right ahead of Dorman (12:45.40). Junior Corinne Hinkle and freshman Jenna Hinkle are two others to watch in the middle distances. Jenna Hinkle won the 400 in 1:00.44 and Corinne Hinkle won the 800 in 2:23.70. West Valley junior Kayla Vasquez also won the girls pole vault in 10-0 to become only the second section athlete to clear that height this year. "We do have some strong contenders among the girls," Eagles coach Scott Fairley said. "We expect some of them to be right up there next week."

Among the girls, other section athletes to watch out for next week include Central Valley's Bre Mackie won the girls high jump in 5-0, a disappointing mark for her. "I'm trying to save myself for a big leap next week," Mackie said. The Falcons' senior was more than happy with her 100 hurdles result in which she won in 16.49, a more than half second PR to barely edging Yreka freshman Jenna Turner. Turner did come back to win the 300 hurdles in an impressive 46.89.

Wheatland's Miya Wilson swept the sprints, taking the 100 in 12.93 and the 200 in 26.50.

The Pirates boys are dominant in the sprints as well as senior Derek Seward, who has the top section time in the boys 100-meter event this season, lived up to his speedy billing at the D-II finals, blazing to a 10.91-second victory in the 100 on Friday. Seward also won the 200 in 22.42. Wheatland's Chris Nicolaus was a double winner in the hurdles, winning the 110 high hurdles in 15.22 and the 300 intermediate hurdles in 41.15. Despite this domination in the short track races, the Pirates finished the meet in third behind Yreka and West Valley.

In fact many of the other key boys track names to emerge from the meet usually belonged to Yreka. No surprise that Yreka claimed its first boys divisional section title since 1998 with a score of 173 points. West Valley was a distant second with 104 points while Wheatland was third at 76. "This is a very good group we have," Miners track and field coach Orlyn Culp said. "We got sprinters, throwers, jumpers and distance kids." They all were on display Friday.

Senior Tyler Wolf came into the meet with the second-best boys shot put mark in the section this year and promptly busted out a personal-best toss of 52 feet, 9¾ inches. He added a second win in the discus at 149-10. Sarome Eng finished second to Seward in the 100 in 11.6 and also won the long jump in 20-11¼ and the triple jump in 41-11. The third Miners standout would be Dillon Dow, who won the 400 in 50.91 and also has among the top pole vault marks. he was third at 12-6 behind Sutter senior Justin Gildemeister and West Valley junior Kyler Hernandez. Gildemeiser won only fewer jumps, but both he and Hernandez went 13-0.

Yreka also boasts a pair of good middle distance runners in Timmy Williams and Eric Neill, who are among the best distance runners in the section not named Domenic D'Acquisto. Williams won the 800 in 2:01.95, the 1,600 in 4:34.64 and the 3,200 in 10:35.87. Neil was second twice, clocking 2:02.32 in the 800 and 4:44.09 in the 1,600.

The Northern Section Championship meet is at West Valley High School on Friday with the field events starting at 4 p.m. and the track events at 6 p.m.