Spiker, Swaney Keep a Distance from 3,200 Race

Junior Josh Spiker and senior Matt Swaney gave the Ventura High boys’ cross-country team the best 1-2 tandem in the state when they competed at distances of three miles or 5,000 meters last season.

But they aren’t expected to run an all-out 3,200--the longest track race contested at the high school level--until the Ventura County championships at Royal High on April 30.

“I want them to view the 3,200 as a fresh race at the end of the season,” assistant Bill Tokar of Ventura said. “I don’t want them to be pounded out after running the 3,200 all season.”

With that in mind, Spiker and Swaney have been turning in some impressive efforts at the 1,600- and 800-meter distances.

Spiker, who finished 14th in the national cross-country championships in December, set a meet and school record of 4:15.6 in the 1,600 in the Meet of Champions Distance Classic at Azusa Pacific on March 27.

He ran a 1:57.6 800 leg on Ventura’s winning 3,200 relay team in the Eagle Rock Relays at Occidental College a week earlier.

Swaney, third in the Southern Section Division I cross-country championships in November, ran a career best of 4:23.5 to place sixth in the 1,600 in the Meet of Champions and clocked 1:57.4 on his 800 leg in the Eagle Rock Relays.

With those quality marks to their credit, Tokar expects Spiker to break nine minutes and Swaney to run in the 9:17-9:18 range in the 3,200 by the end of the season.

Spiker set a school record of 9:18.23 in the 3,200 last year and Swaney clocked 9:37.81.

“They’ll probably [run both the 1,600 and 3,200] in the Channel League finals,” Tokar said. “But I’d rather they focus in on their best race after that.”

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Mike Lemon of Nordhoff is trying a strategy in direct contrast to Spiker and Swaney. He has turned in some fine times in the 1,600 and 3,200, and hopes to improve in the 800.

Lemon, a senior, ran a career best of 1:55.45 to place second in the 800 in the Ventura County championships last year.

But he placed fifth in the 1,600 in the 4:22.4 and eighth in the 3,200 in 9:49.9 in the Meet of Champions.

“We’re training for the 800, but we’re having an awful lot of fun in the 1,600,” Coach Ken Reeves said.

“[An 800-1,600 double] is a possibility at the [Ventura County championships] and at the [section Division IV] championships.”

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Senior Jerome Stevens of Rio Mesa improved his career best in the discus by nearly nine feet when he unleashed a throw of 162-11 against Camarillo last Thursday, but Coach Pete Weinerth says he should throw substantially farther by the end of the season.

“I think he can go 170,” Weinerth said of the 6-foot-2, 245-pound Stevens. “That’s not unreasonable.

“He’s a physical specimen. It’s just a matter of him putting it all together.”

With bests of 162-11 in the discus and 53 feet in the shotput, Stevens is one of the best all-around throwers in the region.

Weinerth says he has barely scratched the surface of his potential.

“If he wanted to be a 57-58 foot [shotputter], he probably could,” Weinerth said. “But he’s got a lot of other things going on in his life outside of track that require a lot of his time and energy. He could be a phenomenal thrower if he had the time to devote to track.”

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Last year, Miguel Fletcher of Alemany, Justin Fargas of Notre Dame, Quincy Wright of El Camino Real and Demetrus Patterson of Birmingham comprised the fastest group of sprinters ever in the region, but the area lacks a top 100 or 200 runner this season.

No school from the region will be represented in the boys’ seeded or invitational 100 and 200 races in the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High on Saturday night.

It will be the first time that has happened since 1991.

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A group of 35 boys and girls from Australia will be guest competitors in a Valley Pac-8 Conference meet between Reseda and host Poly on Friday at 2 p.m.

The Australian contingent, comprised of some of that nation’s top high school performers, will be competing in a meet at Poly for the fifth consecutive year.

The Australians are scheduled to arrive in Southern California on Thursday and take part in a series of cultural-exchange events at Poly on Friday.

That will be followed by an on-campus barbecue.

The Australians will compete in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on April 17.

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Carol Myszkowski was a triple jumper for Royal, Moorpark College and Cal State Chico, and coaches the triple jumpers at her high school alma mater.

So it should come as no surprise that the license plate on her pickup truck reads “3 JUMPER.”

“Some people aren’t sure what it means,” Myszkowski said. “I’ve been asked if it has something to do with sky diving. . . . But people who know I’m a track coach know what it means.”

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Birmingham will host Taft in a meet on Friday at 2 p.m. that is expected to determine the West Valley League champions for boys and girls.

Birmingham, which tied for second in the City girls’ championships last year, is top-ranked in the region and defending City champion Taft is ranked No. 3.

The Taft boys are ranked No. 3 and Birmingham is No. 10.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Top 10

Rankings of track and field teams from the region

BOYS

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RK LW School (League) 1 2 Rio Mesa (Pacific View) 2 1 Ventura (Channel) 3 3 Taft (West Valley) 4 5 Newbury Park (Marmonte) 5 6 Notre Dame (Mission) 6 4 Camarillo (Pacific View) 7 7 Palmdale (Golden) 8 8 Harvard-Westlake (Mission) 9 9 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 10 10 Birmingham (West Valley)

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GIRLS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Birmingham (West Valley) 2 2 Camarillo (Pacific View) 3 4 Taft (West Valley) 4 3 Rio Mesa (Pacific View) 5 5 Cleveland (North Valley) 6 6 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 7 7 Crescenta Valley (Pacific) 8 8 Notre Dame (Mission) 9 9 Simi Valley (Marmonte) 10 10 Canyon (Foothill)

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