PREP TRACK AND FIELD / TUSTIN RELAYS : El Toro Girls, Century Boys Finish Ahead of the Pack

The El Toro girls’ team won two events and finished second in three others to win the Tustin Relays Saturday at Rancho Santiago College. The Charger boys also finished second, 10 points behind Century (62), which accumulated 46 points by winning four of Friday’s field events.

El Toro won the first two races of the day as Lisa Wood ran a 2 minute 24.5-second anchor leg in the 3,200 yard relay. The Chargers finished in 9:53.5. Tia Barbee and Jill Holmes ran splits of less than 16 seconds for El Toro in the shuttle hurdles (1:11.3).

“We didn’t think about winning,” girls’ Coach Rick Hagin said. “We just came to compete and have some fun. I’m real happy with the consistency of our kids today.”

In the 400 relay, El Toro was even with Corona del Mar coming around the last turn. The Sea Kings’ Nicole Albano held the lead and finished in 52.3, four-tenths of a second ahead of El Toro.

The girls’ distance medley made had the biggest comeback of the meet. The Chargers had a 16-second lead by the last leg, but Fountain Valley’s Angie Winkler, one of Orange County’s top distance runners, closed the gap and took the lead on the backstretch of the final lap to finish in 12:56.3.

The El Toro boys placed in four events, but could not catch Century, which finished in the top three in two events.

Century’s Robert Villegas won six individual medals Friday, including first place in the pole vault with a jump of 13-6. “All we wanted to do today was put at least 10 points on the board,” Centurion Coach John Knox said.

Century finished second in the shuttle hurdles (1:04.2) to Katella and Zack Sterling, who ran a 15.2 anchor leg as the Knights finished in 1:03.7. The Centurions also finished third in the 3,200 relay (8:20.3), behind Edison (8:07.8) and San Clemente (8:13.0).

Santa Margarita’s boys’ and girls’ teams finished third, each winning two events and finishing second in one. Matt Blazedale ran a 50.5 in the 400 and caught Savanna in the last turn of the sprint medley as the Eagles finished at 2:29.4, a tenth of a second ahead of the Rebels.

In the girls’ 800 relay, Claremont, which finished second (54 points), took the lead in the third leg. But T.J. Poettger stayed close and Santa Margarita took the lead on her handoff to Barbara Scheil. The Eagles finished first in 1:49.9.

But it was El Toro that dominated the day.

After closing out Claremont in the distance medley, the two schools battled for third in the 1,600 relay. Wood and Claremont’s Hadara Adelson battled into the last turn and through to the finish line. Wood, who edged Adelson by no more than two steps, collapsed from exhaustion 20 yards past the finish line. After being helped to the inner track where she regained her breath, she smiled.

“We showed that we had a lot of heart today,” Hagin said.