Depth Gives Moorpark Men’s WSC Track Title

Kyle Beck of Valley College did it with style and a flair for the dramatic.

The Moorpark men’s team accomplished it with workmanlike consistency.

The result was titles for each in the Western State Conference track and field championships at College on the Canyons on Saturday.

Beck, a 1990 graduate of Chatsworth High, won the 110-meter high hurdles in 14.63 seconds, the 400 intermediates in a personal best of 52.33 and the long jump with a personal best of 24 feet 5 1/2 inches. He also ran the first leg on Valley’s victorious 400 relay team that timed 41.06 and the second leg on the Monarchs’ mile relay team that placed second in 3:15.06.

Beck had more victories than the entire Moorpark team, but the Raiders’ depth propelled them to a 198-163 victory over Bakersfield, the two-time defending WSC champion. Valley (108 points), Santa Monica (92) and Cuesta (80) rounded out the top five.

Santa Monica, led by quadruple winners Glory Dolphin and Githa Hampson, easily won the women’s meet with 210 points, followed by defending champion Moorpark (125), Glendale (100 1/2), Valley and Bakersfield (90 points each).

Nicole Rucker of Valley won the 100 (12.50) and 200 (25.4), and ran legs on the Monarchs’ victorious 400 (48.24) and mile (4:04.40) relay teams.

The title was the first for the Moorpark men since the school moved to the WSC in 1986 and the first under third-year men’s Coach Doni Green, who had great success at Simi Valley High during the 1980s.

“The guys were just real consistent,” Green said. “That’s been our strength all year.”

Moorpark scored points in 19 of the 20 men’s events in the meet, which awarded points to the top eight finishers on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.

The Raiders’ only victories came from Ken Teasley in the javelin (season best of 206-0) and from Matt Carrillo in the triple jump (personal best of 46-2 1/2), but they totaled eight or more points in 12 events for a comfortable margin of victory.

Joe Maashoff produced Moorpark’s best individual mark in finishing second behind Beck in the intermediate hurdles with a school record of 52.39.

Beck was half a stride behind Maashoff and Bakersfield’s Ryan Renz (52.56) as the trio approached the final hurdle of the race, but he was able to outgun them in the final 40 meters.

“That was an exciting race,” Beck said. “I knew Maashoff would be tough and I knew Renz had run well last week, so I just told myself to hang with them down the final straight and luckily I had a little more leg speed coming off the final hurdle.”