Santa Margarita’s Shanklin Wins 4 Events

For the second consecutive year, Santa Margarita senior Amanda Shanklin won four individual events at the Sea View League girls’ track and field championships Friday at Irvine High.

The Eagles won the meet by 52 points over second-place Woodbridge, and will share the league title with the Warriors, who beat Santa Margarita in a dual meet last week.

“I wanted to defend my four wins from last year,” Shanklin said. “That’s kind of been in my head all day, but I knew I had to take it one race at a time and one one jump at a time to get there.”

Shanklin began the meet with a victory in the long jump (17-3 1/2), which Shanklin considered her biggest challenge. She then followed with victories in the 100 hurdles (15.01), triple jump (35-11) and 300 hurdles (44.48).

“Coming into the meet I definitely thought the long jump would be the toughest event to win,” Shanklin said. “Luckily, I had a good jump in the prelims and that carried over.”

Another top performance was delivered by Corona del Mar junior Liz Morse, who won the 800 in a county-leading 2:12.95. Morse later ran a 55.8 anchor to lead the Sea Kings to first place in the 1,600 relay in a county-leading 3:59.41. Morse also finished third in the 200 (25.60).

Woodbridge senior Meryl Stone finished ahead of Santa Margarita junior Meghan Atkinson in the 100 (12.47) and 200 (25.25), and Atkinson won the 400 (57.77) and anchored the Eagles to a first-place finish in the 400 relay (49.18).

Newport Harbor sophomore Amber Steen ran a lifetime best to win the 1,600 (5:04.64), then came back to win the 3,200 in 11:18.11.

Santa Margarita also won the boys’ title, holding off a late challenge from Newport Harbor, 147-130.

The Sailors, who won the Orange County title two weeks ago, trailed by 44 points midway through the meet, but took the top four spots in the 800 and four of the top five in the 1,600 to close the gap.

Curt Herberts finished first in the 1,600 (4:20.68) and 3,200 (9:37.54) for Newport Harbor, and Trevor Jones won the 110 hurdles (15.26) and 300 hurdles (38.76).

El Toro’s Sam Moore was the other double winner, taking first in the 100 (11.08) and 200 (22.41).