This Time, Fountain Valley Runs Proper Relay Distance to Win Meet

The Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach boys’ track teams needed two days and two 400-meter relays to determine a winner in their Sunset League meet at Huntington Beach.

Thursday, Huntington Beach appeared to be a 67-64 winner, thanks to a victory in a mis-measured 400-meter relay. The Oilers, running in Lane 2, ran the correct distance, but the Barons, in Lane 3, went about eight meters too far.

Fountain Valley Coach Hank Cochrane said the official starter marched Huntington Beach’s leadoff runner to the correct starting point, but mistook another line for the spot at which Fountain Valley’s first runner should start.

Cochrane said, “We knew something was wrong when the (Huntington Beach runner) caught our guy on the stagger faster than he should have.”

Cochrane said the starter pointed out the mistake to Cochrane or Huntington Beach Coach Paul Wood several events later, after the 200 meters had been run.

When it became clear that the race would affect the meet’s outcome, the starter and the coaches huddled and decided that the relay should to be rerun Friday. After all, the Sunset League dual meet championship was at stake; each team went into the meet with a 3-0 league record.

With each team running the proper distance Friday, Fountain Valley won the race (45.1 seconds) and the meet (72-64).