Brianna Tate, Domenic D'Acquisto performances highlight West Valley-Chico Invitational
McQueen comes away with both team titles, PV girls fourth

Wednesday April 22, 2010
By NICK WILSON-Sports Writer, Chico Enterprise Record
story edited and supplimented by Tom Cushman, photos by Tom Cushman

CHICO — Some of the best teams throughout California and Nevada descended on the track at University Stadium, joining the north state's top talents to prove their mettle at the West Valley-Chico Track and Field Invitational on Friday. The McQueen High girls won the invitational with 94 points, while West Valley (57) came in second and Reno came in third (43). Pleasant Valley finished one point behind for fourth. The McQueen boys also won (90), with Yreka (45) taking second and Reno (44 1/4) finishing third. Chico was fifth with 32 1/4 team points. "For Northern California this is the premiere meet," said Chico hurdle coach Robert Quist. "We had schools from Reno, we had schools for the Sacramento area. This is big-time. Everybody loves this track. We had great performances and everyone has done well. We had PRs and that's all that we can ask for."

Pleasant Valley coach Sterling Jackson was just as pleased with his team. "They were absolutely dynamite," he said. "I believe there were eight personal records today. We set the girls (400m relay) top (time) in the north state. With Gabrielle (Finley-Vaquera) she bettered her tops in the 100. Brad Cox, a sophomore, set a PR. Brook Whitburn went big. This was a great meet for our kids today. ... This was a great time for the Vikes here. For me to see this all come together, males and females alike, this was a really nice day for us."

McQueen girls win came on the shoulders of two, the meet female MVP Brianna Tate (1st-400m, 1st 200m, anchor on the winning 1600 relay. Her 400m time the 2nd fastest ever at the meet) and Katy Hufford (winner of 100m, both hurdle races and the long jump). The winning effort by the McQueen boys was more balanced. Arnold Carrilo was their only multiple event winner, claiming both the 200 and the 400m races. He also anchored their team in the winning 1600 relay. Their only other event wins came in the 400m relay and Joe Lesar's win in the 100m. Enterprise's Domenic D'Acquisto was the male MVP for the meet. He set the meet record in the 1600 by running a solo 4:14.47, then coming back to win the 3200 with another top ten performance (9:20.15).

Pleasant Valley junior Finley-Vaquera had a strong showing, taking second in the 100-meter dash (12.76 seconds), third in the 200 (26.15) after beginning the day by running anchor on the winning 400 relay (51.23) where her late surge around runners from Reno and McQueen was used to secure the top podium position. Finley-Vaquera was especially pleased with the 400 relay win, which was aided by solid efforts from teammates Michelle Guillbault, Brooke Whitburn and Natalie Makel. "I'm really proud of my relay team," Finley-Vaquera said. "We were worried about Orland because they had beaten us twice this year. I was just really proud that we won. My handoff with the third leg (Guillbault) I felt really happy about because we've been having bad handoffs lately. This time I felt like it was really good."

Viking sophomore Whitburn also had a big day. In addition to her effort on the short relay, she set a personal record in the long jump, where she took third with a distance of 17-06 3/4 and another PR in the triple jump, where finished second with a leap of 36-08 1/4. Another sophomore Melanie Hickman rounded out the scoring for Pleasant Valley by placing 4th in competitive 3200 by dipping under 12 minutes for the first time in 11:46.68.

Chico Kody Atkins, stunned the field in the girls 800, taking the race out in a very brisk 63 seconds. Atkins, held on well enough to come up with a 2:12.98 PR. Atkins' time in the 800 was the best in the school's 40-plus years of having a track program — bettering her own mark by three seconds (set last weekend). She started the day winning the afternoon session of the 300m hurdles (48.8) before closing the day anchoring the Panthers to a third-place finish in 1,600 relay where she was teamed Jonelle Ahiligwo, Amanda Costa and Whitney Cinquini, who put up a time of 4:15.0 .

Shasta's Lora James (5:15.67) won the girls 1600m leading five other North Section athletes, that included Oroville's Sarah Brandt (2nd, 5:17.51) and Chico's Amanda Costa (10th-5:25.62) to seasonal bests while completely rewriting the section leader board for the event. Brandt made a huge move coming off the penultimate turn, moving from well back to second place, before losing momentum on the final straight away.

On the boys side, Jason Weinrich set a personal record in the 300-meter hurdles with 39.27, which earned the Panther second place. Complementing that performance was Weinrich's third-place finish in the high jump. "It felt good to break 40 (seconds) finally," Weinrich said. "I've been shooting to break 40 for the past two years of running track, so it was a goal that I finally accomplished. ... The first hurdle was really rough. I could've 14-stepped it, but I 15-stepped it, but the rest of the race was just smooth." Chico also had a strong showing from Tyler Lamott, who took a pair of third-place finishes — one in the shot put (48-06 3/4) and another in discus (153-11). Sophomore Nimai Buroz (4th, 4:30.47PR) and senior Alex Thomas (6th, 4:32.10PR) got some nice points out of the boys 1600m. Zackery Williamson of Pleasant Valley ran the 300 hurdles in 42.87 to take second place in the afternoon session.