Lea Takes Record, Can’t Give Camarillo Title

Matt Lea’s lightning legs set a Marmonte League record, but the combined efforts of Newbury Park High produced a boys’ championship in the league finals Friday night at Camarillo.

A week ago, Lea, a Camarillo senior, posted the state’s fastest 400-meter time this year in the Ventura County championships on the European-cut track at Royal High. He was slower on his wind-swept home oval, but his time of 48.51 broke the league record of 48.77 set by Darren Bernard of Thousand Oaks in 1987.

Lea also won the 200 in 21.81 and anchored Scorpion victories in the two relay events.

Newbury Park’s Brad Kolacinsky, however, wore a broader smile than the front-running Lea when he finished third in the 1,600 relay.

The event secured Newbury Park’s victory.

The Panthers scored 98 points, edging Camarillo, which had 96. Simi Valley was third with 66.

Newbury Park anchorman Patrick Dolan was forced to sit out the relay after spraining an ankle while winning the 300 hurdles in 39.66. Kolacinsky moved to anchor and senior Dave McCoy stepped in and ran well.

“Dave told me, ‘This means the whole meet, I’m not going to lose this race,’ ” Newbury Park Coach Mike Stewart said. “We had this meet doped even and our guys did a great job.”

Behind a first, two seconds and a third by Lisa Wygant, Camarillo won the girls’ title with 101 1/2 points, depriving Thousand Oaks of a fifth consecutive championship. Newbury Park was second with 76 and Thousand Oaks was third with 67 1/2.

In the boys’ meet, Newbury Park, the league’s dual-meet champion, was especially strong in field events. Senior Ryan Hurley won the discus in a career-best 163-5 and sophomore teammate Will Svitek was second in 152-11 3/4.

The throw was one of three career bests for Svitek, who also plays football and basketball at Newbury Park and last year was the 16-year-old national champion in the decathlon. He was second to Mike Seidman of Westlake in the shot put and third in the 110 high hurdles.

Hurley, who made his throws while listening to Metallica on a Walkman, made a discus throw of more than 170 feet that landed out of bounds.

“I was going for a school record [of 168 feet],” he said.

Instead, he and his teammates made do with a championship.

“All year I’ve called this a fighting team,” Stewart said. “We all fought hard today.”

Ray Carmel of Channel Islands, the quarterback on the football team, won the 100 in 10.96, the long jump in 22-6 1/2 and was second in the 200.

The Camarillo girls took command by sweeping the 300 hurdles. Wygant won in 49.59, Erin Braunschweiger was second and Kim Spagenberg was third. Wygant finished second in the 100 high hurdles and high jump, and was third in the triple jump.

Jenny Kenyon of Newbury Park won the 100 in 12.25, the 200 in 25.21 and the long jump in 17-4 1/2.

Chenne Tuimoloau of Channel Islands won the shot put in 33-3 3/4 and the discus with a throw of 119 feet--15 feet beyond her closest competitor but short of the meet record set by her sister, Dolores Tuimoloau, in 1993.