OROVILLE - The 45th annual West Valley/Chico Track and Field Invitational was all about pushing toward new limits. "PR, PR, PR," Chico High distance coach Kevin Girt said while going over some of his runners' times. While personal records became nearly commonplace with the stacked field and warm conditions Friday at Harrison Stadium, standout performances still were easy to spot.
Pleasant Valley's Gabrielle
Finley-Vaquera won both the 100
meters and the 200 invitational
races despite still dealing with
shin splints.
"I just block them out. They
don't hurt until after the race,"
said Finley-Vaquera, who ran the
100 in 12.45 seconds and the 200
in 25.62.
She had to wait to see if her
time in the 200 would hold as she
ran in the first of two heats, but it
was good enough even against
the deep field. Rocklin's Liesl
Shirhall won the second heat but
couldn't beat Finley- Vaquera's
time, nor second place in the first heat McQueen's Katy Hufford, to take third in 26.17.
That provided a measure of
revenge for Finley-Vaquera. Earlier, she and Brooke Whitburn,
Michelle Guilbault and Natalie
Makel took second in the 400
relay with a season record of
50.56. But Rocklin, which ran in
another heat, won in 50.35.
"If we had just ran against
them, I think we could have
won," Finley-Vaquera said.
The big winner in the team standings was again McQueen of
Reno, Nev. The Lancers defended their titles, finishing first
among the 25 girls teams with 98 points and were tops among the
boys with 93 points among 31 teams.
Buoyed by Finley-Vaquera
and another strong showing by
Whitburn, who had a pair of second place finishes in the long
jump (17 feet, 8.25 inches) and
the triple jump (35-7), the Pleasant Valley girls squad was the top
team from the North State, placing
fifth with 46 points. Reno was
second with 71, and West Valley
was third at 56.5. Oroville was
10th with 10 points. Chico,
competing without workhorse Kody Atkins
who was away at the Woody Wilson
Invitational in Davis, barely made the scoring column managing only siz points to place a distant 15th.
Foothill was the top North State
boys team, taking second with
48 points. Host West Valley was fourth 35 2/5, Yreka sixth with 29 points. Closer to home Orland took seventh with 24 points, while Pleasant Valley was
11th with 15 2/5. Gridley was next
with 14 and Paradise was 13th
with 12. Chico only foray into the scoring column was Dallas Thorpe's fifth place finish in the 800 to leave the Panthers tied for 25th with
two points.
Team points were determined
by the invitational events. Earlier
in the day, open versions of the
events ran as well but didn't
count toward team totals.
While Finley-Vaquera's double victory in
the invitational races was impressive so was
the singular effort turned in by Paradise's
Dylan Chamberlen.
In his one event of the day, the senior blistered
the 800 boys race, taking the lead from
the outset and running away with an easy
victory in 1:52.95.
"The first lap I felt like I was going to
push it as hard as I could, and if I died on the
second lap I would deal with it," Chamberlen
said.
Instead, he just kept killing it and the rest
of the field, finishing nearly seven seconds
ahead of second-place finisher Matthew
Schneider of Reno (1:59.26).
Other area winners included Gridley's
Ryan Donnahoe in the shot put and Orland's
Javone Bradford in the triple jump. Donnahoe's
throw of 57-8.25 was 6 feet, 6.25 inches
better than the second-place finisher.
Like Donnahoe, Bradford won with room
to spare. His leap of 44-2.75 was over a foot
better than anyone else.
Not surprisingly, the meet's Most Outstanding Athletes went to McQuenn athletes. Katy Hufford, won both hurdle events (15.35, 46.47) and the long jump (18-06 1/2) while being the runner up in the 200 took home the girls award.
While on the boys side, Arnold Carrillo with wins in the 200 (22.18) and 400 (47.91) plus member of both winning relay teams set the standard which the rest of field had to be compared to.