Girls’ Track and Field Championships : Mission Viejo Wins Title; Franke Again Cited

Yes, winning is still fun.

Another track meet, another athlete of the meet award for Canyon High School’s Allison Franke, albeit in the field events this time.

One might think that winning awards is becoming so common for Franke, a junior, that each new one has less meaning.

“No, not at all,” Franke said after the Orange County Girls’ Track and Field Championships at Rancho Santiago College Saturday.

Franke was named the field athlete of the meet. Sita Jones of La Habra was named the distance athlete of the meet, and Mission Viejo’s Sheri Bertell was named the sprint athlete of the meet.

Franke won the discus with a throw of 148-feet and the long jump with a jump of 17-feet 6-inches last Saturday at UC Irvine before rain postponed the meet.

This time around, Franke took second in the triple jump with a mark of 37-6. Lisa Fager of Mission Viejo finished first at 39-4. Franke also finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.83.

Franke’s reputation has made her one of the favorites in every event she enters. When she finished fourth in the hurdles, some of the Mission Viejo team members sitting in the stands cheered: “She beat Franke! She beat Franke!”

“She” was their Mission Viejo teammate Suzanne Kerho.

But it’s OK with Franke.

“I don’t feel any more pressure,” she said. “Like with the hurdles, I was excited.”

Mission Viejo was excited the most often, though. The Diablos won five events to win the meet with 105 points. Corona del Mar finished a distant second with 60 points, and Canyon was third with 59.

Mission Viejo Coach Fred Almond said he expected to win but he thought it might have been closer. “I expected Corona del Mar and Woodbridge to be tough,” he said.

Woodbridge finished a distant fifth (27 points), with host Esperanza taking fourth (42).

It was only the second meet to be run on Rancho Santiago’s new all-weather track.

“It’s a good surface, and my kids were ready to run,” Almond said.

Bertell won the 100 meters in 11.98 and the 200 meters in 24.62, but Mission Viejo also received good performances from Kerho, who not only won the 100-meter hurdles (14.32) but finished third in the 300-meter hurdles (45.19). Teammate Fager, besides her triple jump victory, won the high jump (5-4).

“Sheri Bertell ran her fastest ever in the 100 and 200,” Almond said. “Suzy Kerho ran her fastest in the 100 hurdles, and Lisa (Fager) never jumped 39 (feet in the triple jump) in her life. It was just tremendous.”

Kerho also ran a leg on Mission Viejo’s winning 400-meter relay team (48.66).

Danielle Reaves of Esperanza won the 300-meter hurdles (44.42) and was second in the 100-meter hurdles (14.56). Ann Kissinger of Marina was third in the 100-meter hurdles (14.63).

La Habra’s Jones won the 3,000 meters in 10:19.1, and Corona del Mar’s d’Layne Kerr won the 400-meter hurdles in 57.69. Mater Dei’s Lynn Haegen won the 1,500 meters in 4:54.63, and Woodbridge’s Amy Robles won the 800 meters in 2:19.73. Foothill’s Ashley Selman won the shotput in 37-8.

The meet originally featured 40 Orange County high school teams, but only 32 were able to return Saturday.

“I think this meet is most teams’ most important meet of the year,” Almond said.