OROVILLE - Thirty seven teams made their way to Oroville California's Harrison Stadium for the West Valley Invitational. No teams from Nevada or the Tahoe area this year, but there were representatives from the San Joaquin and North Coast sections. The weather conditions were near perfect for the evening invitational portion of the meet as breezy north winds died down to leave most sprint events wind legal.
Only two competitors added their names to the invitational's top ten list. Nevada Union's Garrett Gough with a 4:18 mark in the 1600 took over tenth place. More spectacularly, Chico's Hailey Fune did so by popping a 0.25 second PR in the 100 hurdles with her 14.69 performance to clear the field by two seconds. Not only was this the all-time record for the meet and a Chico school record, but also placed her in a tie for second on the Northern Section all-time list with Shasta graduate (and now UCSB junior) Molly Ross, a scant .03 from matching West Valley's Alyssa Christensen's section record. The mark also reset the Harrison Stadium record, topping her 14.98 from a year ago.
Other notable performances include Alicia Murillo tight win over Britta Bundy in the 1600 in which eight of the top ten ran personal bests. Jevon Jackson holding off a determined Jayden Gordon and University Prep's Quinn Danner-Bocks in the boys 400m, in which all three ran under 50 seconds. 2011 was the last time three runners went sub 50. Gordon was doubling back after anchoring Foothill's 4X100 relay win.
Team titles were garnered by West Valley for the girls with 81 points, topping section rival Foothill 67 2/3, University Prep 64 1/3, Fortuna 48 and Chico's 45. The boys title, for the second year in a row, was secured by Foothill with 87 1/5 well ahead of meet host West Valley's 51 1/5, University Prep's 46 7/10, Pleasant Valley's 44 and Chico's 41.
Only two competitors added their names to the invitational's top ten list. Nevada Union's Garrett Gough with a 4:18 mark in the 1600 took over tenth place. More spectacularly, Chico's Hailey Fune did so by popping a 0.25 second PR in the 100 hurdles with her 14.69 performance to clear the field by two seconds. Not only was this the all-time record for the meet and a Chico school record, but also placed her in a tie for second on the Northern Section all-time list with Shasta graduate (and now UCSB junior) Molly Ross, a scant .03 from matching West Valley's Alyssa Christensen's section record. The mark also reset the Harrison Stadium record, topping her 14.98 from a year ago.
Other notable performances include Alicia Murillo tight win over Britta Bundy in the 1600 in which eight of the top ten ran personal bests. Jevon Jackson holding off a determined Jayden Gordon and University Prep's Quinn Danner-Bocks in the boys 400m, in which all three ran under 50 seconds. 2011 was the last time three runners went sub 50. Gordon was doubling back after anchoring Foothill's 4X100 relay win.
Chico's Charlie Giannini, who recently declared his intention of racing for Chico State, ran a season best in the 3200 winning in 9:40 and showed no ill effects from an early season foot injury other than perhaps a lack of fitness. Still he used a closing 4:44 1600 to gap runner-up Nick Torres of Enterprise, who held on well enough to PR by six seconds (9:49). Nearly half the field in the 3200m was filled with runners from Chico and most of them PR'ed during the race.
PV's Kyle Johnson and Sutter's Mia Ashby performed successful distance doubles. Johnson was runner-up in both the 1600m ( 4:27) and 800m (2:00). The time in the 1600m was a PR. Ashby, took third in the 1600m (5:22) then came back to win the 3200 (11:49).
Foothill's Dylan Northrup won both hurdle races. The 110 highs were a close affair in which he held off a fast closing Daniel Dickerson of West Valley. In the longer race, he PR'ed to win by nearly a second over U-Prep's Cooper Overton.
Paradise's Patrick Roehling, fresh off his big win (& PR) at the debut of the new Chico Invitational last week, took the point early in the varsity boys 800m and took the field through a brisk 58 second opening lap. The closing lap saw Roehling relinquish his lead to Chico's Riley Farrell down the backstretch then somehow managed to regroup and surge back into the lead coming off the race's final turn.
Out of towner Fortuna's Camrin Dolcini pulled a rare 100m, pole vault double victory. She drew West Valley's Isabella Alvarez and UPrep's Lexi Jones to seasonal bests in the former and topped three time Northern Section pole vault champion Foothill's Matteya Ruiz by a foot (11-00) in the latter.
West Valley's Natalie Rogers defended her titles in the shot put and discus from a year ago, topping runner-up Foothill's Kiana Emerson by ten feet in the latter (136-08) and PV's Subrina Tuitele by 4 feet (41-04.5) in the former.
The short relay come from behind win and the runner-up season best finish in the 400m must have taken a toll on Jayden Gorden as he finished an uncharacteristic next to last in the 200 and then did not run the anchor leg as he had in dispatching Paradise at the Chico Invitational last Saturday. Likewise Britta Bundy near win in the 1600m left her with no response in the meet's final distance race when Mia Ashby decided to press the pace.
It was an easy decision to award Haile Fune the female MVP of the meet. The boy's award was much more difficult. At the end of the meet there were only two contenders left, PV's Dante Jackson and Foothill's Dylan Northrup. Both were double winners but Jackson had anchored his 4x100 relay team to second place. Northrup was not expected to run a leg on either relay although he probably did, replacing Gordon in the long relay that finished second. This was not known at the time, thus Jackson was given the award.
