Magill, Bostick in the Running

For sheer dominance, Dolores Tuimoloau of Ventura College posted one of the most-impressive victories in the Southern California junior college track and field championships at Citrus College on Saturday.

But if gut-wrenching, come-from-behind victories are your thing, it was hard to top performances by Pete Magill of Glendale and Kristine Bostick of Antelope Valley.

Tuimoloau, the 1994 state high school shotput champion for Channel Islands, was a heavy favorite and her school-record-tying put of 48 feet 4 3/4 inches gave her a 5 1/2-foot margin of victory.

In contrast, Magill and Bostick were top-three contenders who stunned the favorites in the men’s 5,000 meters and women’s 400 low hurdles, respectively.

Magill, a well-traveled 34-year-old sophomore, won the 5,000 with a time of 15 minutes 10.47 seconds after trailing leader Bashir Hussain of Riverside by 40 meters with a lap left on the 400-meter track.

Hussain, who had won the 3,000 steeplechase earlier, appeared to have the victory wrapped up with a lap to go, but Magill never gave up. He passed second-place Jose Rangel of Rancho Santiago with 350 meters to go and swooped past Hussain with 160 meters left.

“With [250 meters] to go, I knew I had it because I was within five meters of him,” Magill said. “I figured there was no one else in the race who could kick with me. But with a lap to go, I realized that the only way I was going to catch him was if he slowed down, which he did. I’d like to shake his hand for that although I realize that wouldn’t be very sportsmanlike.”

Magill’s victory was particularly sweet because he finished 12th in the 5,000 in the 1985 Southern California finals after entering the race as the favorite.

“This was big,” he said. “I had been dreaming that nightmare for 11 years.”

Bostick, a freshman from Palmdale High, had dreamed of winning the 400 lows since setting a school record of 1:06.00 in the Southern California preliminaries last week, but she seemed stunned when it happened.

“This is so rad,” she said after running another school record of 1:04.68. “I still can’t believe it.”

Bostick was in third after the first 300 meters, but when leader Kelly Moten of Long Beach City College and second-place Irizana Stone of San Diego Mesa chopped their steps approaching the ninth of 10 hurdles, Bostick surged into the lead. She won by more than half a second.

Long Beach City won its 11th consecutive title in the men’s meet with 125 points. Moorpark finished sixth with 42 points and Antelope Valley was seventh with 37.

Tom Farnbach of Moorpark placed fifth in the 100 with a personal best of 10.49, fourth in the 200 with a 21.42 clocking and anchored the Raiders’ 400 relay team to a sixth-place time of 41.51.

George Daniels of Antelope Valley placed third in the 400 in 48.20 and ran legs on Marauder teams that placed fourth in the 400 and 1,600 relays.

Long Beach City also won the women’s meet, totaling 153 points. Ventura, led by Tuimoloau, placed ninth with 26.

The top four finishers in running events measuring 800 meters or less and the top six finishers in races of 1,500 meters or more and in the field events automatically qualified for the State championships at Cerritos College on Friday and Saturday.