TRACK AND FIELD / ARCADIA INVITATIONAL : Woodbridge Girls’ 400 Meter Relay Team Has Memorable Day

The Woodbridge girls’ 400-meter relay team, running only their third meet together, had the third best time in Orange County history (47.77 seconds) at the Arcadia Invitational track meet Saturday at Arcadia High.

The best time in county history was 47.65, set by Edison in 1984.

Kim Yoshino, Erin Stovall, Jackie Dix and Meisha Wilson-Duval couldn’t contain their excitement when they were told they broke the 48-second mark.

“These are going to be framed,” Yoshino said, pointing to her shorts. “They are going up on the wall.”

“We wanted to break 48 and get our handoffs right,” Wilson-Duval said. “That was the best we have ever done.” Not to be outdone, the Esperanza girls’ distance medley team set the third best time in county history, winning the race in 12:06.45. Carrie Caulkins, Heather Perrin, Beth Weilder and Courtney Pugmire led most of the race and held off San Jose Mission (12:06.72) for the victory. The 1982 University team holds the best county time (11:43.53). Fountain Valley set the second best time (12:04.3) in 1980.

Dana Hills sophomore Bryan Harrison put on one of the best individual performances. Running in the 200-meter seeded race, Harrison was second in 21.64. His time would have won the invitational race. In the 100 meters, he ran a county best time of 10.70 to finish third. Deworksi Odom of Philadelphia Overbrook, won in 10.44, followed by Marques Holiwell of West Bakersfield.

“I enjoy running against competition like this,” said Harrison, 16. “It brings out the best in me. I was just glad to be invited here.”

In the 1,600 relay, the Foothill girls were second in 3:57.57. Sabrina Caplis, Stacy Brandon, Katie Mook and Tara Oettinger ran for the Knights, with Oettinger skipping the long jump finals after jumping 18-7 1/2 in the preliminaries. She finished fourth without jumping in the finals. Tustin’s Reggie Curry took second in the triple jump with a leap of 47-10 3/4. Peter Slater of Chico Pleasant Valley took first, jumping 47-11 1/2.

In the girls’ high jump, Laguna Hills sophomore Tayyiba Haneef, jumping on a sore knee, took third by clearing 5-6 on her first attempt. Haneef is scheduled to be examined Monday and might be done for the season, according to her father, Mo Haneef. Kerry O’Bric from Edison leaped 37-5 1/4, to finish third in the girls’ triple jump. La Shonda Christopher of Lacy (Wash.) RiverRidge recorded 42-1 1/4 to outjump the competition by five feet.

In other events: Sepher Sharifi of University was second in the discus with a throw of 183-5. In the 1,600, Brandon Pacheco finished 11th in 4.17.91, tops in the county.

Adalberto Sanchez of Capistrano Valley was seventh in the 3,200 meters with a time of 9:10.1. In the girls’ race, Corona del Mar’s Tracy Clark finished ninth (11:01.8).