SD Prep Sports: Track & Field

www.geocities.com/sdprepsports

E-mail us at sdprepsports@aol.com

Home   Swimming/Diving   Cross Country  Track & Field   Roller Hockey   Water Polo   CIF Scorecard

Sweetwater Relays

Steele Canyon pole vaulter aims to soar to new heights

By Phillip Brents

Posted March 21, 2005

Steele Canyon pole vaulter Carrie Wick experienced the thrill of winning a San Diego Section championship last year. She is back with bigger and better goals this season.

Wick captured the Division II girls pole vault title last year by clearing a height of 11 feet, 1 inch. She opened this season by clearing 10-0 to win the event at last Saturday’s Sweetwater High School Relays in National City.

Her goal at the end of this season is to clear 13-0.

"Last year, the winning height at the state meet was 12-7, so I thought 13-0 would be a good height to go for," said Wick, who holds the school record in the event with last year’s CIF-winning height.

Wick’s success story last year was one about progression and peaking at the right time, according to Steele Canyon track and field coach Gary Stathas.

"The thing that was most impressive was how strong she ended the season. Coming into CIF, her best jump was 10-0. Then she jumped 10-6 at the CIF prelims and did 11-1 at the CIF finals. She PR’d two weeks in a row," Stathas said.

This is Wick’s third year competing in the event. She jumped 7-6 in her first-ever meet. Her vault of 11-1 ranked second at last year’s section finals only to the 11-5 recorded by Rancho Bernardo’s Kate Mattoon, who captured the Division I title.

The Cougar coach said Wick’s strength in the event comes from her aggressive runway approach.

"She has more speed than most athletes have on the runway. That accounts for a big part of her success," Stathas said. "There are other things that are also important, of course. But if you are not aggressive on the runway, a lot of those other things don’t matter."

Wick’s aggressiveness on the runway placed her head and shoulders above the rest of the field at the Sweetwater Relays both figuratively and literally. Sweetwater’s Valeria Gonzalez turned in second-place height of 7-6.

Steele Canyon overall enjoyed a successful outing at the Sweetwater relays with a third-place finish among Division I teams (trailing first-place Morse and runner-up Eastlake).

Mt. Miguel recorded the top time in the boys 440-yard relay (45.0) while the Matadors' Karlin Stewart won the boys long jump with a jump of 20 feet, 8 inches. On the girls side, Mt. Miguel's Antonique Seales placed third in the shot put with a distance of 36-2.

Bronco Invitational
East County athletes left their mark at last Saturday’s Bronco Invitational at Westview High School.

In boys events, Granite Hills Chris Costa clocked the top time in the 300-meter hurdles (39.31) and posted the second-best time in the 110-meter hurdles (15.32) while Eagles teammate Scott Finley soared 16-0 to record the top height in the boys pole vault.

Monte Vista’s Roberto Archibald had the third-best time in the boys 300 hurdles (40.39) while Monarch teammate Walter Diego was sixth in the boys discus (136-4).

Valhalla’s Anthony Bareno finished with the sixth-best time (9:46.78) in the boys 3200-meter run.

Granite Hills placed fifth in the boys 4x400-meter relay (3:30.73) while Monte Vista was sixth in the boys 4x100-meter relay (44.38).

In girls events, Monte Vista’s Danielle Thu recorded the top discus throw of 132-9 and finished second in the shot put event at 35-1 while Grossmont’s Lakeny Simon-West notched the second-fastest time in the 400-meter dash (59.02) while also placing seventh in the long jump (16-1).

Thu is the reigning conference champion in the discus event.

El Capitan’s Mallory Bawkey placed fourth in the girls 300 low hurdles while Valhalla’s Leslie Noiseauxe turned in the fourth-best girls high jump at 5-1 and El Cajon Valley’s Michelle Thompson was fourth in the girls discus with a throw of 113-4.

El Cajon Valley finished seventh in the girls 4x100 relay (52.36) while Granite Hills and Monte Vista were eighth (4:22.36) and ninth (4:22.96), respectively, in the girls 4x400 relay.

Helix junior Sharika Thompson set a personal best of 15.52 seconds in the girls 100-meter hurdles to win her event at the 30th annual Tiger Relays March 12 at Patrick Henry High School.

Monte Vista’s Thu won the girls discus event with a throw of 127-1 while placing second in the girls shot put at 36-1.

Athletes in the frosh/soph mid-distance relay event make the turn at the 2005 Sweetwater Relays

March 19 in National City