MISSION VIEJO – JSerra’s girls track and field team won the team title Saturday at the Orange County Championships for the second year in a row in a dominating way.
The Lions scored points in 11 of the 16 events that were calculated into the team scores at Mission Viejo High School and finished with 113.66 points, more than 42 points over second-place Mission Viejo’s 71.
JSerra also won the boys title Saturday.
JSerra’s deep corps of girls distance runners led the way.
JSerra’s Brynn Garcia won the 3,200 meters in 10 minutes and 32.2 seconds. In the seeded 1,600 Georgia Jeanneret finished third, Kaylah Tasser was fourth and Brooke O’Brien was sixth.
This depth is unlikely to be a one-year event. Jeanneret and O’Brien are juniors, Garcia is a sophomore and Tasser is a freshman. And the winner of the frosh-soph 1,600 and 3,200 on Saturday was JSerra freshman Summer Wilson.
In the 800, JSerra senior Anastasia Snodgrass was third and O’Brien was fourth.
JSerra senior Siena Lambert was named the girls field events athlete of the meet. She won the discus with a toss of 145 feet, 6 inches and was third in the shot put with a mark of 37-7.
More JSerra points came from freshman Maya Woolforde, who won the 400 in 57.27 seconds; from junior Charley Giacobetti, who tied with Laguna Hills junior Karen Maceranka for first in the pole vault at 11 feet, 1 inch; and in the 4×400 relay that the Lions won in 3:57.98.
Corona del Mar junior Ava Simos was the sprints athlete of the meet. She won the 100 in a personal-record of 12.34 and won the 200 in a wind-aided 24.88. Simos was second in the 100 hurdles, at 15.41, behind Pacifica Christian junior Charis Wondercheck, who won in 15.22.
Simos said a simple shift in where she placed her attention made Saturday a good one for her.
“This season in all of my races I kind of focus on other people,” she said. “If another person gets close to me it messes me up and messes up my stride. So I wanted to come here today and fully focus on myself, knowing the conditions would be good and that I’ve been training hard and the only thing it comes down to is myself.”
It was a special day, too, for Mission Viejo’s victorious girls 4×100 relay team of Hannah Bassett, Jada Gatlin, Aubrey Kays and Emily Psarras. Gatlin and Psarras are seniors.
“For Jada and I it’s our last time competing on our home track,” Psarras said. “So winning was all we wanted today.”
Gatlin won the long jump with a mark of 18 feet, 1 inch. Her mark of 37 feet in the triple jump was second to El Dorado junior Karalyn Cheng’s 38-1.
Newport Harbor sophomore Keaton Robar was named girls distance runner of the meet. She continued her remarkable progress by winning the 800 in 2:10, less than a second off of her personal-record 2:09.13 that she ran last week at the Arcadia Invitational. Robar has improved steadily from her season-opening 2:25.95 in mid-February.
The 800 was one of the better races of the day. Robar took the lead early and held off Dana Hills senior Allura Markow, who crossed the finish line at 2:10.38.
“I had to make my move early,” Robar said. “This isn’t one of the races where you can easily out-kick people, which is kind of what I rely on sometimes. I think Allura was right on my tail.”
Huntington Beach junior Makenzie McRae’s powerful finish took her to victory in a deep seeded 1,600 field in 4:53.84 to beat her previous personal best by four seconds. Getting that personal record was her plan.
“The first couple laps I got boxed out and I was kind of like hanging on to that first pack although I was really not in it,” McRae said. “But I just had to trust myself, know I had a kick in me and to trust my kick.”
Laguna Hills sophomore Holly Barker was second at 4:55.19 and JSerra’s Jeanneret was third at 4:56.
Edison junior Alexa Sheldon won the shot put with a toss of 39-2 and was second to Lambert in the discus.
Related Articles
JSerra boys reach new heights at Orange County Championships for track and field
Esperanza girls, Foothill boys pace new wave at Foothill Swim Games
Orange County softball standings: Saturday, April 15
CIF-SS boys and girls track and field rankings, April 12
Orange County track and field leaders going into Saturday’s O.C. Championships
Santa Margarita senior Lidia Major took first in the 100 hurdles with a 44.96, one second shy of her county-leading time.
Newport Harbor freshman Natalie McCarty won the high jump competition as the only competitor to clear 5 feet.
League finals will be held throughout Orange County in the coming weeks. After that, the CIF-SS postseason events begin. They start with the CIF-SS prelims (May 6), followed by the CIF-SS finals on May 13 at Moorpark College, the CIF-SS Masters Meet at Moorpark College on May 20 and the CIF State meet May 26-27 in Clovis.