Track and field: Some early top Division II prelim performances

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Here are some notable performances from early action at the Southern Section-Toyota Division II preliminaries:

• Antelope Valley’s Ryan Butts broke a 28-year-old Division II record in the long jump with a leap of 24 feet 4 3/4 inches. It actually was a little less than the 25-0 jump he recorded at last week’s Golden League finals, but that jump came with no wind instrumentation. Butts is one of the favorites for the state title and I’m planning to upload a video interview with him later.

• Loyola’s Ryan Holmes has posted the state’s second-fastest time in the 110-meter hurdles this season and he posted a top qualifying time of 14.52 this afternoon. Like a lot of top-tier athletes at today’s prelims, Holmes purposely didn’t try to beat his seasonal best of 14.32, but expect big things from him at next weekend’s finals.

• Rio Mesa’s Valexsia Droughn, pictured, continues to show why she’s one of the state’s most dynamic sprinters despite being only a freshman. Droughn’s 12.01 in the 100 meters was enough to push her among the top three qualifiers in the event and it was just a few tenths of a second off her personal best. She may be only a freshman, but Droughn is gunning for the state title in the 100.

• Moorpark’s Max Dyce also finished among the top qualifiers in the boys’ 100 with a time of 10.70. Dyce has posted the second-fastest time (10.53) in the event this season and will definitely give Cathedral’s Randall Carroll a run for the state title later this month.

• Obum Gwacham of Ayala qualified first in the triple jump at 46-11 3/4. He’s one of the state’s top jumpers and it’ll be interesting to see if he can finish ahead of Loyola’s Tommy Kmett (46-9) and Mayfair’s Tony Burnett (45-9) next week.

-- Austin Knoblauch

-- Image by Austin Knoblauch