Oroville's Brandt sisters shine at EAL track finals

Red Bluff's Erynn Rebol takes point at the start of the varsity girls 800. Rebol wins with a four second cushion over Oroville freshman Sarah Brandt

By LELAND GORDON-ER Sports Writer  - Friday, May 9, 2008 Coverage augmented by Tom Cushman REDDING — The full-stocked rosters were rewarded Thursday at Enterprise High School's track with high spots in the final Eastern Athletic League standings. For those kids coming from teams that weren't in competition for the league crown, it was the opportunity to qualify individually for next week's Northern Section Division I championships. The top four competitors in each event will advance to next week, just one step away from the section championships. It was all about placing in the top four, not necessarily winning events or team titles, though those who finished first got all-league patches. Pleasant Valley High girls coach Chris Gulbrandsen brought in the top female team in terms of regular-season meets but the Vikings ended up placing fourth Thursday. The combination of places got his team the third spot in the final EAL standings. He said building the program was more important than gunning for it all. PV's only winner on the day was the 400-meter relay team, made up of Leah Pennick, Julia Dunbar, Camille Balasek and Marion Wolfe. "Every meet we go into, we want each kid to be successful," he said, alluding to the younger varsity runners who were sent down to junior varsity. "If that means we have to put them at JV, then that's what we look at. Every person that we asked to score points for us today did."

The Brandt sisters were depended on to score a lot of points for Oroville and they responded, as senior Katie and freshman Sarah combined to win four events. Katie won the long jump and 400 and was second in the triple jump while Sarah was the champ in the 1,600 and second in the 800. Both were on the 1,600 relay team that won the final girls race of the night, along with Anne Lundberg and Jessy Sousa. Teammate Cheryl Ridge was second in the shot put while Lundberg was second in the 200 and the 100. Coach Mike Buchanan said his stellar young ladies are good enough to compete with other full teams at events like the EAL championships. Oroville was 4-3 in the regular season and finished third Thursday, so the Tigers' girls ended up fourth in the league. "They're fun and easy to coach," Buchanan said. "We don't have a lot of depth. In the EAL it's tough to accomplish much. But we had a winning record, so that says a lot about their abilities. We don't have a lot of girls but they're quality." Chico, in contrast, has teams with depth and quality. Michelle Johnson won the 3,200 and Kasey Barnett took the triple jump crown, and on the boys' side there were four winners. Russel Rabut was the best high jumper, Matt Carter won the 400 and Kayhan Karatekeli was the champ in the 110 hurdles. Carter teamed with Matt Sloggy, Josh Charrington and Cody White to win the 1,600 relay. Karatekeli's win was by three one-hundredths of a second, barely besting Enterprise sensation James Williams. "Up at Red Bluff he and I really battled it out," Karatekeli said about the opponent he had never beat before in the 110 hurdles. "I was so overwhelmed at the end I didn't know how to take it." Chico Sophomore Dan Parker took second in 800 & 1600 meter races, recording a personal best in the 800 the second of his two races. Chico's boys were second Thursday and finished second in the league standings to undefeated Enterprise. The girls have the exact same story. Paradise entered the night in last place girls-wise and second to last in the boys ranks. The Bobcats' best story was senior Lindsay Witteman, who won the 100 and the 200 in addition to a second-place finish in the 400. Her victory in the 100 was slightly unexpected, as she hasn't run the distance much this year. But she held off Oroville's Lundberg and got the title. "I knew that (Lundberg) was fast but I didn't know about her past or anything. I just came out to win," Witteman said. "I could have done better in the 400 today, but the 400 did help my time in the 100."

Hornets looking to sting Enterprise boys, girls win EAL, head to Big School (DI) Championships

By Redding Record Searchlight staff  - Friday, May 9, 2008 Coverage augmented by Tom Cushman The Enterprise High School track team had a good and bad day at Thursday's Eastern Athletic League Championships. Sure, the host Hornets won both boys and girls league titles. But, Enterprise had a boys Big School championship in its sights next week when it would try and unseat season-favorite West Valley. The problem for the Hornets is, they needed to qualify a ton of athletes to compete with an Eagles club that can score well in almost every event. Plus there are injuries to contend with. Take freshman Enterprise standout Jovon Cunningham. He tweaked his hamstring and took fifth in the long jump -- he'd been ranked fourth in the section. He did win the triple jump, though, even after he cut his approach in half. Enterprise's girls scored 100 points. Chico took second in the meet with 89 points, Oroville scored 81 for third. Pleasant Valley was fourth (67), Shasta fifth (46), Foothill sixth (38) and Red Bluff seventh (37). The Hornets' boys scored 139 points -- about 40 fewer than expected. Chico took second (116), Foothill third (72), Shasta fourth (68) and Red Bluff fifth (55). Wolves thrower Jazmin Porter may arguably own the standout performance of the day when the sophomore threw 41 feet, ½ inch in the shot put. She tweaked a nerve on the throw and took it easy in the discus -- finishing second -- but improved her best throw by 1½ inches.The mark is the 11th-best all-time in the section. Anderson's Kristin Bryden set the section record (45-10) in 1997. Others would argue that Enterprise Freshman Domenic D'Aquisto's double win in the 1600/3200, taking the California mile in a section best of 4:20.37, was the most impressive performer at the meet.