Orange County Boys’ Track Championships : Magnolia’s Singbandith Sets Meet Record in Long Jump

Phouphot Singbandith of Magnolia High School broke the meet record in the long jump with a leap of 22 feet 10 inches Saturday in the Orange County Boys’ Track and Field Championships at Rancho Santiago College.

“I thought it was maybe a 48 (in the triple jump),” said Singbandith, who was given the field athlete of the meet award for his performances. “My previous best was 47.”

So he was off by a couple of feet. The next best triple jump mark of 46-10 1/2 was recorded by Esperanza’s Clayton Tharrington.

He also came within a half-inch of tying the county record in the triple jump with a leap of 50-3. Ken Williams of Troy set the record in 1982.

The meet team championship was decided by just one point as Capistrano Valley staved off a late charge by Woodbridge, 63-62. Edison finished third with 40 points and Esperanza was fourth with 35.

Capistrano Valley led by as much as 20 points early in the meet as it won the 400-meter relay with a time of 42.4 seconds and the 1600 with Neal Stevenson’s 4 minutes, 23.07 second effort.

But Woodbridge pulled to 47-45 after Chad McHenry won the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 39.16. Capistrano Valley expected to gain a better advantage in the 200-meters, where the Eagles’ Joe White was favored to win, but Canyon’s Jerrard Bryant won it with a time of 21.98. White finished second in 22.30.

Bryant also defeated White in the 400-meters by one-one hundredth of a second--49.52 to White’s 49.53.

Woodbridge won the 3,200 relay (3:24.18) and Capistrano Valley finished second (3:27.81) to put the Eagles in front, 63-56, with the triple jump and pole vault left.

Scott Capulong finished fifth (two points) in the triple jump to pull Woodbridge to 63-58.

That meant a third by Woodbridge in the pole vault would give it the championship if Capistrano Valley didn’t place.

The Eagles didn’t place, but Graham Heppensdall finished fourth (13-6), allowing Capistrano Valley to win by the one-point margin.

“Well, it was certainly interesting,” said Capistrano Valley coach Tom White. “But a championship is a championship and we’ll be proud to to take this one.”

“We have some team depth and we were pleased with the whole team’s performance.”

Woodbridge did have the track athlete of the meet in Louie Muniz.

Muniz won the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.09 and the 300 hurdles with a time of 39.16.