Orange County Boys’ Track and Field Championships : Capo Valley Uses Its Depth to Take Team Title

The Orange County boys’ Track and Field Championships took place Saturday at Mission Viejo High School, and proved:

- Capistrano Valley, which won the team championship with 52 points, has tremendous depth.

- Santa Ana Valley’s Paul Peters, who won the 100- and 200-meter finals, has gears he hasn’t used yet.

- Arcadia may not be the world’s biggest city, but it sure did cast a long shadow across this meet.

Arcadia High is the site of the Arcadia Invitational, which over the past 20 years has developed into one of the nation’s most prestigious prep track meets.

This season, the Orange County Championships and the Arcadia Invitational were held on the same date, which meant that top Orange County track and field athletes, such as Edison shotputter Kaleaph Carter and Foothill pole vaulter Steve Slocum, had to make a choice.

Carter, Slocum and many others opted for Arcadia, which raised the question of whether this could truly be called the Orange County Championships when much of the top competition is not competing.

As far as such teams as Capistrano Valley are concerned, that answer is a most emphatic, er, probable, yes.

The Cougars, with 52 points, were well ahead of second-place Los Alamitos and Edison, which tied at 36. Orange (32) was fourth, La Habra and Mission Viejo (each with 29) tied for fifth, Newport Harbor (28) was seventh and Dana Hills, Santa Ana Valley and Villa Park (each with 24) tied for eighth.

Even if all the top stars had been at Mission Viejo, Capistrano Valley probably would have prevailed because of its depth.

Capistrano Valley won the 400-meter relay (43.82 seconds) and the 1,600-meter relay (3:31.30), and the Cougars’ Craig Rebeck won the discus with a throw of 167-feet, 10 1/2-inches. Capistrano Valley also scored points in the 100, 200 and 800.

“We relied on our depth today,” said Capistrano Valley Coach Tom White. “We’re happy to be Orange County champions. A county championship is a county championship. The trophy isn’t going to say, ‘Some of the athletes participated in Arcadia.’ ”

Peters, nursing a sore groin muscle, was one of those who was invited to Arcadia, but, unlike most, chose Mission Viejo.

“I wanted to prove who was the fastest in Orange County,” he said.

In the 100, Peters started slow--”for the first half of the race, all I saw was their backs”--but overtook the field and won in a time of 11.02.

Peters also found himself behind in the 200 final. Cypress’ Blaise Bryant had about a five-meter lead on Peters with about 60 meters to go. And then, “I just kind of let my gears kick in,” Peters said.

He blew past Bryant and won easily with a time of 21.9. Bryant was second at 22.25.

“He didn’t shift gears,” Bryant said. “He skipped a couple. . . . Yeah, he proved his point.”