SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Track & Field

San Diego Section 2005 Championship report

Otay Ranch's Bennttt is Metro's shining star

By Phillip Brents
Posted June 3, 2005

On a day when the Metro Conference failed to qualify any athletes for this year’s state championship meet, Otay Ranch’s Britney Bennett stood out as the South Bay’s shining star. The Mustang sophomore became the school’s first-ever San Diego Section CIF champion when she earned top honors among Division II long jumpers with a school-record mark of 17-11. She finished second in the Division II field in the girls 100-meter dash and third in the girls 200-meter dash.

The top three finishers in each event at last Saturday’s section finals, plus those who met a predetermined standard, qualified for the state meet. The section finals consisted of two flights in each event. The A-flight was comprised of the top nine section qualifiers who would be eligible to qualify for the state finals. The B-flight was comprised of athletes with the next nine best marks who would score points for their team toward determining the respective Division I and Division II team champions.

This is the first year in recent memory that the Metro Conference failed to qualify at least one athlete for the state meet.
By comparison, the Grossmont Conference qualified 13 individuals in 16 events, plus one relay event. East County athletes won 11 divisional titles and four section titles.

Shining star
Bennett entered the 100 dash finals with the seventh-fastest qualifying time in the A-flight (12.42) and the eighth-best qualifying mark (17-0) in the long jump. She competed in the B-flight in the 200 dash tied with Mission Hills Lucia Asbury with the top qualifying time of 25.95.

El Camino senior Markita Berry and Rancho Bernardo junior Kasey Kearin both took qualifying jumps of more than 18 feet into the finals. Berry was the top qualifier at 18-1.5 while Kearin was second at 18-0.5. Following in descending order were RBV senior Heather Leidle (17-7.5), Fallbrook sophomore Carli Lloyd (17-7), Morse senior Vanessa Bobo (17-7), Tri-City Christian senior Sarah Brown (17-5.5), La Costa Canyon junior Petra Rackley (17-3.5), Bennett and Mt. Carmel senior Mia Mobley (16-11.75).

Bennett’s season best had been the 17-5.5 she recorded at the Mustang Phair Company Invitational on April 23. Bobo entered the finals as the section leader on the season at 18-8.5, followed by Kearin (18-5) and Leidle (17-11.5).
However, qualifying for the state meet would be based simply on the marks turned in at the May 28 section meet. Forget about previous heroics.

The old sports adage that on any given day, any one could be beaten certainly appeared to apply in this case. Bennett was clearly up for it.

“I was motivated to get up there,” she said.

Midway through the competition, Bennett had soared near the top of the leaderboard with a jump of 17-6 to break her existing school record. As she approached the runway on her subsequent jump, fans began clapping in support.
That support paid off as she upped her school record to 17-11 on her final jump. The 17-11 effort placed her third overall, good enough to qualify for the state finals behind Rackley and Lloyd, both with jumps of 17-11.75.

Bennett began jumping up and down immediately after recording the 17-11, hugging fellow competitors. Her smile was big enough to fill the entire stadium. However, her celebration was short-lived as her record-setting jump touched off a succession of jumps by Berry (17-11.75) and Bobo (17-11.5) of even greater distances.

In all, five jumpers hit 17-11 or better on their final jump, Bennett included.

Mustang head coach Ian Cumming, said he was hard-pressed to remember such a string of five successive jumps of more than 17-11 happening in his long tenure as a coach. “When she exploded for the 17-6, that’s when everyone jumped. She finished three-quarters of an inch from going to state,” said Cumming, who called Bennett’s series “pretty amazing.”

Berry finished with the lead, followed by fellow state qualifiers Lloyd (second) and Rackley (third). Bennett finished fifth behind Bobo.

However, the 17-11 mark was good enough to stand up as the top mark recorded by a Division II jumper. She thus became the school’s first-ever track and field athlete to win an individual CIF champion.

In all, she competed in four events at this year’s section finals, anchoring the Mustangs’ 4x100 relay team in the first running event besides competing in the three field events.

Otay Ranch finished sixth in the A-flight 4x100 relay with a time of 49.77. The time placed the Mustangs second in the Division II field behind University City (47.79).

Bennett timed 12.33 in the 100 dash, finishing fifth among the nine A-flight runners. University junior Aja Wheeler finished as both the section and Division II champion in 12.09.

Bennett won the B-flight in 25.36, bursting ahead of Madison sophomore Ciara Short, who finished runner-up in 25.64. Bennett’s time placed her third overall among Division II runners, with UC senior Shakara Lott topping the section with a 24.39 time.

The Otay Ranch wonder woman obliterated all her previous best marks at the section finals. She remained modest about her accomplishments. “I didn’t think I would do that well,” she said simply.

The Mustangs excelled overall at the section meet. Sophomore Charay Savage finished fourth in the A-flight girls 100 hurdles race (second in Division II) and was fifth in Division II in the 300 hurdles while Ranee Woods won the B-flight boys 300 intermediate hurdles to place fourth in the Division II field. Woods was sixth in the B-flight of the 110 high hurdles (seventh in Division II).

Savage timed 15.47 in the 100 hurdles and 48.06 in the 300 hurdles. She entered the section finals with qualifying times of 15.26 and 47.79, respectively.

Savage also placed eighth in the A-flight of the girls triple jump (35-3.5), third overall in Division II.

Woods timed 15.60 in the shorter distance and 40.40 in the longer distance. He entered the section finals with qualifying times of 15.52 and 41.12, respectively.

Six additional Otay Ranch athletes competed in the B-flight:

•Marc Corrales was second in the boys 800 run (1:59.87).

•Kandy Wilmore was sixth in the girls triple jump (33-9.5).

•Mike Poole was eighth in the boys discus (111-02).

•Estefania Fregoso was ninth in the girls 1600 run (5:44.75).

•Mark McPherson was ninth in the boys triple jump (41-0.75).

•Ricky Pimentel was ninth in the boys 1600 run (4:35.66).

•The boys 4x400 relay finished seventh in the B-flight (seventh among Division II units).

Otay Ranch (48 points) finished third in the Division II girls team standings behind team champion University City (88 points) and runner-up Monte Vista (62 points).

Rather than single out any particular athlete, Cumming simply chose to call the performances turned in by all the Mustang section finals qualifiers as “amazing.”

Metro roundup
Eastlake senior Esha McDowell entered the A-flight girls high jump seeded second with a jump of 5-4 (a mark that met the at-large state qualifying standard). However, the Titan jumper only managed to clear 5-3 to place fourth behind event winner Jamie Klages of Coronado (5-7.25), La Costa Canyon’s Whitney Sisler (5-5) and RBV’s Leidle (5-4).

Eastlake coach Joe Stubbs said it was the first time that McDowell had failed to clear 5-4 in a meet this season.
There was more disappoint for South County athletes. In the boys 1600 run, Bonita Vista sophomore Eric Avila finished seventh in the A-flight race with a time of 4:29.46 — five seconds slower than his prelim qualifying time. The Baron runner placed fifth among Division I runners, finishing nearly 15 seconds behind race-winner A.J. Acosta of El Camino. Acosta doubled in winning both the 1600 and 3200 boys runs.

Among other A-flight qualifiers, Hilltop senior Alexxus Watley finished fourth in the girls shot put (37-7), Bonita Vista sophomore Austin Jett was eighth in the boys 800 run (1:59.85), San Ysidro junior Kylie Rivers was ninth in the girls discus (117-0), Eastlake senior Anthony Feaster was ninth in the boys triple jump (42-3.75), Sweetwater junior Sam Suarez finished ninth in the boys shot put (49-1.75) and Red Devil senior teammate Donald Groves was ninth in the boys discus.

Rivers finished fifth among Division II discus throwers. Suarez was sixth in the Division I field.
In the boys pole vault, Eastlake junior Luc Ruiz finished ninth among Division I vaulters, 13th overall in the section field with a height of 13-0. His best this season was 14-0. He matched that to qualify for the section finals.
Eastlake finished seventh in the A-flight in the boys 4x400 relay (3:28.07).

Sweetwater senior Ernest Pierce, who had the second-best qualifying jump of 22-1 in the boys long jump, was a scratch.
Among Metro athletes competing in the B-flight, Sweetwater’s Groves placed third in the boys shot put (48-6.75), Castle Park junior Veronica Gonzales was third in the girls 1600 run (5:17.08), Marian Catholic senior Janelle Millner was third in the girls 400 dash (59.48), Marian Catholic junior Shanice Howard was fourth in the girls 800 run (2:23.30), Montgomery junior Roger Andrade was fourth in the boys 300 intermediate hurdles (41.45), San Ysidro’s Rivers placed seventh with a put of 31-9.5 and Mar Vista junior Marvin Moss was eighth in the boys long jump (20-1.5).

Marian Catholic won the B-flight in the girls 4x400 relay (4:01.30) and finished ninth in the girls 4x100 relay (51.67).
For complete results, visit the Web site at www.cifsds.org.