Victory Not First Thing on Her Mind

Pregnancy has a way of changing one’s thought process. Just ask Valencia High softball Coach Donna Lee, who is expecting her first child in about six weeks.

Valencia scored a run in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday to upset Saugus, the first time the Vikings have defeated the four-time defending Foothill League champion.

Lee was thrilled, to be sure, but she admitted her mind was elsewhere while her players celebrated.

“All I could think about was that I had to go to the bathroom,” she said.

TRACK AND FIELD

Second chance: Heather Sickler’s

senior season at Camarillo will continue for at least another week, thanks to the generosity of teammate Abbie Olmos.

The defending Southern Section Division I and Masters Meet girls’ pole vault champion failed to clear her opening height of 10 feet 6 inches in the Marmonte League finals at Camarillo.

Since only the top three finishers in each event advanced to the Division I preliminaries, Sickler’s season appeared to be over.

But Olmos, a senior who finished third at 8-6, volunteered Saturday to give up her spot so Sickler could vault in her place and the league’s coaches approved the move.

“She’s really excited,” Camarillo vault coach John Stringer said of

Sickler. “I called her to give her the news and I asked her, ‘If you could wish for one thing right now, what would it be?’ And she said, ‘You know.’ Then I told her what happened and she was ecstatic.”

Expected to compete: Ika Eliashvili of Birmingham, the defending City Section champion in girls’ triple jump, has a stress fracture in her right heel but is expected to compete in the Northwest Valley Conference finals at Birmingham on Friday.

Eliashvili, who set a school record of 37-10 while qualifying for the final of the state championships last year, has competed sparingly in the triple jump in the last six weeks because of the injury.