ORANGE COUNTY PREP TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS : Record, Team Victory Just the Meal Ticket for Foothill

MISSION VIEJO — Jerry Whitaker, Foothill’s track coach, was in deep Saturday at the Orange County Track and Field Championships.

After Whitaker’s boys’ 1,600-meter relay team of Don Oliver, Tad Heath, Mike Lynch and Ethan Taub had won and broken the meet record, Whitaker knew he had to pay up.

“I told them I would take them all out to dinner if they ran into the 18s,” an elated Whitaker said. “It’s not going to be the Ritz-Carlton, but we are going to have some fun.”

Foothill finished in 3 minutes 17.83 seconds--one of the top three times in the Southern Section this season--to break the school’s 1992 meet record of 3:17.96. And to top it off, Foothill also won the team championship at Trabuco Hills High.

Entering the final event--the relay--Woodbridge led by a point with 53. Foothill and Esperanza (50) were next. The relay points enabled Foothill to beat Esperanza, 62-58, with Woodbridge third with 53 and Cypress fourth (44).

Esperanza was second in 3:22.28, Cypress third in 3:22.80.

Foothill’s unofficial splits were Oliver (49.2), Heath (49.2), Lynch (50.4) and Taub (49.0). The time was even more impressive considering Foothill’s runners hadn’t raced together since March 20 at the Katella Relays because of injuries.

Jaime Martinez of Orange broke 2-year-old meet records by Laguna Hills’ Chris Lynch, first leading wire-to-wire in the 3,000 to win in 8:40.3 (besting Lynch’s 8:46.24).

Martinez had as much as a 70-meter gap at one point, but with a lap to go, Huntington Beach’s Ben Flamm and Esperanza’s Shawn Frack started to make up some ground. Frack kicked past Flamm to finish second in 8:44.0; Flamm ran 8:48.3. A electronic malfunction forced officials to time the race by hand.

Martinez was upset for a short time because he didn’t hear the bell at the start of his last lap. He thought he had two laps remaining and didn’t start kicking until a came around and realized he had only 50 meters to the finish.

“I slowed down that last lap because I saw the ‘2’ (laps left sign),” Martinez said. “I said, ‘Wait a minute, something’s wrong here.’ ”

Martinez went out hard again in the 1,500 and won in 3:57.75. Katella’s Mike Love (3:59.96) and Flamm (4:00.31) followed. Lynch ran 4:01.1 in 1992.

Esperanza won the girls’ team championship with 57 points. Mission Viejo was next (42).

Canyon’s Kim Nelson won the girls’ 3,000, outkicking Tustin’s Liza Alexander, who led most of the race, to win in 10:18.37. Caulkins ran 10:19.64.

Ocean View’s Christie Engesser, one of the state’s top runners, won the 800 (2:13.68) and 1,500 (4:41.3).

Meet Notes

Gary Young of Woodbridge won the 100 (10.82) and 200 (21.5). His 100 time is among the top five in the Southern Section. Los Alamitos’ Cavetra Mitchell also was a double winner (100 in 12.39 and 200 in 24.89). Brian Carlson had three decent attempts at 7-0 in high jump and finished at a personal-best 6-10. Marina’s Tony Parish won long jump (a county-leading 22-7) and triple jump (45-5 1/2). Laguna Hills’ Amy Feniello, Tosha Clements, Tiffany Boykin and Kelly Robson won girls’ 1,600 relay (3:59.69). In the girls’ high jump, Newport Harbor’s Tina Bowman and Esperanza’s Kristy Kierulff went head to head, with Bowman winning at 5 feet 8. Kierulff, who missed once at 5-6, was second at 5-8. Both jumpers had close attempts at 5-10.