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.