SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Track & Field

Granite Hills, West Hills boys track teams excel at Jaguar Invite

Posted April 17, 2005

The Granite Hills and West Hills boys track and field teams dominated their respective divisions at last Saturday’s Valley Center High School Jaguar Invitational. West Hills competed in the invitational’s morning session in the Division 2 field; Granite Hills competed in the afternoon session in the Division 1 field.

Granite Hills’ Chris Costa entered the month of April leading the San Diego Section in both the boys 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter intermediate hurdles with top times of 15.19 and 39.31 seconds, respectively. He paced the field at this year’s Jaguar Invitational with times of 15.20 in the high hurdles and 39.41 in the intermediate hurdles to win both events.

Costa defeated Sweetwater’s Ferrari Welch by 0.55 seconds in the high hurdles and out-legged Coronado’s Reid McLean (40.49) by more than one second in capturing the intermediate hurdles event.

Also turning in standout marks for the Eagles were Michael Martinez, who recorded the top 100-meter dash time of 11.43, and Kurtis Smith, who won the boys high jump with a height of 6-2.

Granite Hills’ Kevin Jenkins recorded the second-best triple jump effort at 40-6, followed closely by teammates Martinez (third, 40-2) and Thomas Lassenden (fourth, 39-9.5). Also for the Eagles, Clark Gordon recorded the third-best Division 1 high jump of 5-10 in the afternoon session while teammate Luke Simpson was fifth in the event with a high jump of 5-8.

Smith and Gordon entered April with the third-best high jump marks in the section of 6-4.

Granite Hills also received a third-place finish from Jason Jackson in the discus throw (120-11) while Josh Sandoval finished third overall in the combined Division 1 and Division 2 boys 3,200-meter run with a time of 9:46.40. Brandon Pride finished fifth in the boys long jump (20-0.5)

In relay events, Granite Hills placed second in both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays with times of 44.14 and 3:27.36, respectively. The Eagles entered the month ranked third in the section in the 4x400 relay and fourth in the 4x100 relay.

The performance by West Hills athletes in the morning session was no less impressive.

Jeremy Root captured first place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:02.64 while E.J. Brown finished first in both the long jump (21-0) and triple jump (41-10).

Brown and teammate Eric Trudo (20-7.5) engineered a first and second place finish in the long jump while Wolf Pack teammates Nathan Muzquiz and Kyle Hamann placed first and second in the high jump with marks of 6-4 and 5-10.

In the weight events, Ryan Shumaker won the shot put with a put of 46-2.5 and also topped the field in the discus throw with a mark of 138-8. Shumaker was ranked third in the section in the discus and fourth in the shot put.

The list of event champions also included Philip Staback, who won the morning session Division 2 pole vault with a clearance of 12-6.

Charles Tyler placed second in the 200-meter dash in 23.05 while Trent Butler (4:46.27) finished second in the boys 1,600 meters. Jason Beckham turned in the second-fastest time in the 300 hurdles (42.29) and was fourth in his heat of the 110 hurdles (15.90).

Miles Pivonka was third in the boys shot put (43-4) and fourth in the discus throw (121-0). Mike Gregus (39-11.5) was fourth in the triple jump.

In relay events, West Hills finished first in the 4x100 (44.02) and second in the 4x400 (3:32.42).

Matadors pride

Mt. Miguel also competed in the afternoon session but among Division 2 teams. Karlin Stewart finished first in both the boys long jump (21-8.5) and triple jump (45-0). The Matadors also ran to the fastest time in the division in the 4x400 relay (3:44.30).

Mt. Miguel distance standout Chris Laguna finished second in the boys 1,600-meter run with a 4:42.41 time and also finished second in the boys 800 run in 2:05.53.

Also for the Matadors boys team, Andrew Lundquist finished second in the shot put (42-9.5) while teammate Elijah Foster was third (39-7.5). Lundquist also finished third in the discus throw (134-5) while Foster (131-1) was fourth.

Jeff Freeman was fourth in the boys 400-meter dash, timing 54.72. Lamont Freeman was fourth in the boys triple jump (39-10.5).