Jay Back in Stride After a Week Off : Track and field: He breaks tape three times, helps Ventura to second in Spartan Relays.

This is the time when most track and field athletes are enduring some of their toughest workouts while preparing for the postseason that starts in May. A week of rest and relaxation, however, seems to have worked wonders Ramsey Jay of Ventura High, however, as he won the 100 meters and anchored two relay teams to victory in the Spartan Relays at Rio Mesa High on Saturday.

Jay, fourth in the 400 in last year’s State championships, felt overly fatigued while preparing for the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on April 14. When he ran a disappointing 21.98 seconds to place sixth in a heat of the invitational 200 at Mt. SAC, he figured a break was needed.

“I just didn’t feel like doing anything after the workouts,” Jay said.

“I know you’re supposed to be tired after workouts, but I was absolutely dead.”

As a result, his workouts consisted of nothing more than light jogging and stretching for the five days after Mt. SAC.

On Thursday, he ran a wind-aided 10.3 in the 100 and clocked 21.9 into a head wind in the 200 in a meet against Oxnard and San Marcos, and Saturday he timed a personal best and meet record of 10.83 in the 100 and ran two storming anchor legs on the Cougars’ 400 and sprint medley relay teams.

Led by Jay, Ventura totaled 77 points to finish second behind Thousand Oaks (89). Camarillo placed third with 70 points, followed by Newbury Park (44) and Rio Mesa (43).

“I felt good,” Jay said. “The rest seems to have done me good. I feel strong again.”

Jay had to run down Hueneme’s Ronney Jenkins (10.86) in the 100 as the Viking junior might have gotten away with a rolling start.

“He got out well,” Jay said. “He had a step or two on everyone at the start, but I didn’t panic. I knew that being a 400 runner, my strength would pull me through at the end, and it did.”

Jenkins, who is tied for second on the all-time Ventura County list in the long jump at 24 feet 1 inch, bypassed that event to focus on sprinting and it nearly paid off in two victories.

Jay also had to run down Jenkins on the anchor leg of the 400 relay to give Ventura a 43.34 to 43.45 victory over Hueneme.

Jay ran a 48.9 leg in the 400 portion of the sprint medley relay, despite biding his time for the first 300 before shifting into overdrive in the final 100 to give Ventura (1 minute 36.03 seconds) a comfortable margin of victory over Rio Mesa (1:37.88).

“I think I’m back where I want to be,” Jay said. “I think I’m capable of running some fast times in the upcoming meets.”

Ventura’s Aaron Davis and Hasita Sutton had the other top individual marks in the boys’ meet as Davis spanned a personal best 22-7 1/2 in the long jump and Sutton won the discus at 154-6.

The Spartan Relays usually produce some high-quality marks in the 3,200, but several factors prevented that from happening Saturday.

Swirling winds made it difficult for runners to turn in fast times. In addition, many of the region’s top performers ran in other events or did not run at all.

Eleazar Hernandez of Camarillo, the state leader in the 3,200 at 9:05.15, confined himself to the distance medley relay, and ran a 4:27.5 on his 1,600 anchor leg to help the Scorpions to a winning time of 10:47.10.

Jeff Fischer of Thousand Oaks, who has run 9:10.42, anchored the Lancers to victory in the 3,200 relay (8:14.52) with a 1:58.7 leg, then left for a recruiting trip to Stanford.

Teammate Keith O’Doherty, who has run 9:10.91 in the 3,200, missed the meet because he was on a recruiting trip to Arkansas.

In their absence, junior Todd Disney of Thousand Oaks won in 10:05.14.

Channel Islands junior Sharika Higgins produced the most-impressive individual mark in the girls’ meet, but Thousand Oaks’ superior depth resulted in an 82-71 victory over Buena.

Rio Mesa finished third with 42 points, followed by Newbury Park at 40 and St. Bernard with 30.

Higgins ran a personal best of 12.16 in the 100 and anchored the Raiders to a season-best of 48.92 to win the 400 relay.

Like Hernandez, Amy Skieresz of Agoura restricted her talents to the relays.

The 1994 state Division II cross-country champion anchored Agoura to a third-place finish in the girls’ 3,200 relay with a 2:23.6 leg for her 800 meters.

Then Skieresz ran 5:06.3 over 1,600 meters on the anchor leg of the distance medley relay as Agoura (12:49.29) turned back runner-up Ventura (13:02.03.

The girls’ sprint medley relay produced one of the most-exciting races of the meet as Buena junior Stacy Hebert surged past Rio Mesa senior Andrea Wasden in the homestretch.

Wasden had timed 56.0 on a 400 leg in the Arcadia Invitational, but Hebert’s 58.6 split was enough to overtake her Saturday as the Bulldogs timed 1:52.33 to the Spartans’ 1:53.11.