Buena Runs Up Score on Ventura, Admits It

An angry Steve Blum lashed out at rival Coach Hudson Scoggin after Thursday’s Channel League track meet, even though Blum’s Buena High girls’ team thrashed Ventura, 86-39, at Ventura.

“I wanted to come in here and kick their butts,” Blum said. “This used to be a friendly rivalry, but now I feel like they’re stealing my kids. I used to be friends with Scoggin, but now I can’t even look at him.”

Blum is upset over the Ventura Unified School District decision to restructure attendance boundaries for the two schools.

Blum also had little sympathy for Ventura’s loss of top competitor Nicole Campbell, who pulled out of Thursday’s meet because she suffered a strained thigh muscle. Her injury robbed the meet of the much-anticipated showdown between Campbell and Buena’s Stacy Hebert, two of the area’s top runners at 200 and 400 meters.

With Campbell sidelined, Hebert won four events, running season-best times of 13.03 seconds in the 100 and 27.35 in the 200. She also clocked 1:00.82 in the 400 and 47.38 in the 300 low hurdles.

Campbell, who had defeated Hebert in the 400 and 200 last season, said sitting out was difficult.

“It wasn’t my decision,” she said. “It was the doctor’s orders. If it was up to me I would have been out there pain and all.”

She insisted she could have beaten the winning times in the 200 and 400, but Blum was not convinced.

“Excuses are for losers,” Blum said. “I was ticked when I heard Campbell wasn’t running. I didn’t want to hear any excuses.”

In the boys’ meet, Matt Appel led Ventura to an 81-48 victory, winning the 200 and 400 and running legs on the victorious 400 and 1,600 relay teams.

Scoggin wasn’t surprised with the results.

“They were favored in the girls and we were favored in the boys,” he said. “But with Nicole the girls’ meet would have been a tossup; without her it was a whole different ballgame.”

The Buena girls (5-0, 5-0 in league meets) won all but four events and finished second and third in two of Ventura’s victories.

Allison McIntosh won twice for Ventura--running 5:35 in the 1,600 and 12:16 in the 3,200--but the Cougar girls (3-1, 2-1) failed to register a point in six events.

Jeremy Jackson, who ran a leg on the winning 1,600 and 400 relays, set a personal best in winning the long jump at 19-11 3/4. Hasim Russell tied a career best with an 11.09 in the 100 for the Ventura boys (4-0, 3-0) and anchored the 400 relay team’s 44.74 victory. Buena dropped to 3-2, 3-2.