Upstart Panthers Enjoy a Field Day

Todd Disney of Thousand Oaks High couldn’t believe it, but the figures were right in front of his eyes.

With one event left in Thursday’s Marmonte League opener among Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Camarillo, the Lancers trailed the Panthers by 10 points.

“How can that be?” Disney asked as he looked at a scorebook. “We won a lot of races.”

True, the defending league champion Lancers did win six of 10 races in the boys’ meet, but upstart Newbury Park dominated the field events to post a 69-60 victory over Thousand Oaks. Camarillo was third with 41 points.

Disney, a senior, won the 3,200 meters in 9 minutes 54.9 seconds, placed second in the 1,600 in 4:29.4 and was third in the 800 in 2:01.6 to help Thousand Oaks outscore Newbury Park, 48-35, on the track. But the Lancers got hammered in the field events as Newbury Park (5-0, 2-0) outscored them, 34-12.

“The jumps weren’t the only factor, but they were a factor,” Thousand Oaks Coach Dan Murphy said. “We did what we needed to do in the shotput and we did OK in the discus, but they did a good job against us in the jumps.”

Josh Carolan, Disney and John Barbachano finished first, third and fourth in the 800 to give Thousand Oaks (1-1, 1-1) a 39-34 lead over Newbury Park after the first eight events, but the Panthers won the next four events to take a 61-48 lead with four events left.

Junior Patrick Reddick started the surge by winning the long jump with a leap of 20 feet 9 3/4 inches and capped it with a victory in the 200 in 22.8.

Those victories were sandwiched around wins by brothers Dave and DaJuan Hawkins. Dave ran first in the 300 intermediate hurdles (42.5) and DaJuan won the triple jump (43-1 1/2).

“The kids did a great job,” Newbury Park Coach Mike Stewart said. “We basically did what we expected to do in the field events and we had some surprises in some of the running events.”

Reddick also won the 100 in 11.1 as Newbury Park took a big step toward winning its first Marmonte title.

In the girls’ meet, two-time defending league champion Thousand Oaks defeated Newbury Park, 96-58. Camarillo was third with 18 points.

Thousand Oaks (2-0, 2-0), led by 1995 national cross-country champion Kim Mortensen, scored 32 of a possible 33 points in the middle- and long-distance races.

Mortensen clocked 5:01.4 in the 1,600 and 2:19.1 in the 800 to help Thousand Oaks take the first four places in those races.

Sophomore Erin Sorensen led a 1-2-3 finish in the 3,200 with a time of 11:52.9.