PREP TRACK AND FIELD ROUNDUP : Edison Beats Esperanza; Streak Stays Alive

The 34th was the toughest yet, but the Edison girls’ track team kept its Sunset League consecutive victory streak alive Tuesday.

Behind the strength of double victories from juniors Kerry O’Bric and Marie Philman, the Chargers outlasted visiting Esperanza, 72-63, in the league opener for both schools. Edison’s winning streak goes back to 1990.

“I can’t believe we just won this meet,” a teary-eyed Charger coach Karen O’Bric said after the victory.

“The biggest job was just convincing these girls they could win.”

The younger O’Bric set county’s leading mark in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, edging Aztec Christina Ohaeri by one-tenth of a second to win in 46.4 seconds.

O’Bric also posted a county-leading mark in the triple jump (38 feet, 4 inches), but was edged by Aztec junior Kelly O’Conner on her last jump of 38-6 1/2.

O’Bric and Philman posted a 1-2 Charger sweep of the 100-meter low hurdles, O’Bric running 15.9 to Philman’s 16.0.

Philman carried the Chargers (6-0) in the field, winning the shot put (38-4 1/4) and the discus (133-2).

The Aztecs had a chance to win midway through the meet when Charger junior Kelly Marshall false-started in the 400 meters, but the host team rallied to preserve its record.

“A couple of girls came up to me after that and said, ‘Karen, we’re just going to have to try a little harder now,’ ” O’Bric said of the mistake by Marshall, who came back to anchor the 1,600-meter relay victory.

Esperanza (2-1) was led by seniors Courtney Pugmire and Kristy Kierulff, who won six events between them.

Pugmire secured victories in the 800 (2:20.7), 1,600 (5:23.4) and 3,200 meters (11:57.0) while Kierulff won the high jump (5-8), long jump (18-4 3/4) and anchored the winning 400-meter relay team (49.7).