A deep West Valley boys team captures team title at 49th WV Invitational,
Spanish Springs' Jessica Ozoude dazzles once again with another impressive double

Friday April 22, 2016
By Jeffrey Larson, Paradise Post with editing by Tom Cushman
(photos by Tom Cushman)

OROVILLE - With schools from all over Northern California and across the state line in Nevada, the 49th running of the West Valley Invitational seems to always bring a championship-level stage to Oroville's Harrison Stadium. Friday night was no different a good result after sketchy weather conditions of less than pleasant temperatures, blustery south winds and scattered showers plagued the afternoon session that led to many sub par performances in the field events.

"I like big meets like this, a lot of competition," Las Plumas High senior Adham Rivers said. Rivers stood up against several out-of-area standouts in the 400, while clocking a PR 51.41 in route to a second-place finish to Blaise Carson of Roseville, who clocked 50.84. "It's midseason, so I'm hoping to break 50," Rivers said. "(Get to) state, it's my last year so I got to go out hard."

The Northern Section seemed to hold up well in this top-flight meet, with the West Valley boys grabbing first with 52 points despite only one win on the day (4X100). They were followed by Arcata (42) and section rival Pleasant Valley (41).

The host Eagles provided fireworks in many events beginning in the boys 800 meters when senior multi-event star Zach Baldwin was inches away from toppling the top-ranked half-miler in Nevada, Logan Spodobalski (Bishop Manogue).

Baldwin' strong second lap steadily narrowed Spodobalski's opening lap lead but it wasn't until the closing 50 meters that the gap got uncomfortably close for the leader who managed to just hang on. Nevertheless, Baldwin came away with a personal record and section-leading time of 1 minute, 55.72 seconds. Spodobalski won in 1:55.51. "I definitely think he was faster than me, but I gave it my all," said Baldwin, the top-ranked 400, 800 runner in the section. "He was great competition, I love racing him."

Baldwin doubled back in the day's finale, anchoring the winning West Valley 1,600 relay team, to edge Paradise by four-tenths of a second. The No. 1 4x400 quartet in the section clocked 3:32.2 while Paradise ran 3:32.6. The hosts nearly swept the relays falling short to Galena a superior lean in the 4x100, despite matching the winning time(44.93).

PV seemed to thrive in the sprints and field events as Donovan Jackson placed second in the 200 in a PR 23.53. Teammate Ryan Keables 21-1 PR leap edged Redding Christian's Cody Beaumont as the other top seeds Jovoni Johnson of Marysville and Alex Davila of Corning could never really get untracked. Finally for the Vikings, Sethan Miller didn't let the less than ideal weather condition deter him from upsetting the section leader Kyle Cox of University Prep in the boy's high jump clearing 6-4" to match his seasonal best. Andrew Skoy, a junior from Shasta, was named the boys outstanding athlete of the meet award based on his third place finish in the 1600m (4:28.38PR) and comeback victory in the 3200m (9:42.6PR) who after leading much of the last mile had to run down West Valley's Donald Leedy who boldly passes him with about 60 meters to go.

A depleted Chico team's only win came in the boys 100m as Stephen Dean used a mid race surge to grap the lead then hold on to take the victory. The Panthers did well in the 800 too, with Rory Sprague first foray under 2 minutes placing him third (1:59.94) while sophomore Kellen Pierce took eighth (2:04.21PR). A missed bus and a rumor of the meet being cancelled led to a lot of field event and sprinters to being AWOL for the meet.

Roseville won the team title going away with a dominant performance gapping the second place team (Tahoe-Truckee)by more points than the Wolverines scored. A 1-2 finish in the 400 for the Tigers, with winner Brooke Carson coming back to finish a distant second to Spanish Springs' Ozoude in the 200. These efforts were backed up by Madison Meade's win in the 800, third place in the 1600, a win in the short relay and a second place finish by Megan Fereira in girls pole vault.

Standouts for the Northern Section included defending hurdles champ Molly Ross of Shasta, who overcame a scary moment when her leg buckled attepting to hurdle during her prerace warmup, to continue her overwhelming success in the 100 hurdles with a victory in 15.85. In the 100, PV's Courtney Kerman had the unenviable task of running against the top-ranked 100-meter in Nevada, Jessica Ozoude of Spanish Springs. While Ozoude would run away from the field seemingly at ease in 12.28, Kerman beat the rest of the field finishing in 13.18 - a race that was run into a headwind. Ozoude, undefeated at both the 100m & 200m this year, runs a stadium record 24.90 in the 200m for another easy win (& top ten meet performance) which made her the lock for the girl's outstanding athlete of the meet award.

In the California two-mile, Red Bluff's Naomi Renfroe, Chico's Jessalyn Ayers and Paradise's Talia Swangler were among the chase pack as Central Valley's Anna Lewis took the early lead with eventual winner Arcata's Chloe Pigg tucked in behind. Pigg gapped Lewis midway a little before the midway point. Lewis' lead over the chase group changed little as surges by individuals within the chase pack kept the group's overall pace honest. First Meledrez, then Renfroe leave the chase group with both passing Lewis although the Red Bluff junior didn't do so until the home stretch. Everybody in the chase group runs a PR except Lewis who, despite tripling, still manages a season best.

Seven teams ended up within 5 1/2 points of each other with Gridley and Arcata tied for third with 36 points followed by section teams Shasta, sixth (34), West Valley seventh (32) and Pleasant Valley eighth (31).