They’re on Pace for More Success

Erin Brzezinski, a stalwart on Thousand Oaks High’s last four Marmonte League champion girls’ track and field teams, will graduate next month, but the future of the program appears bright thanks to freshman Makenzie Hobbs.

Thousand Oaks Coach Robert Radnoti knew nothing about the 5-foot-7 Hobbs at the start of the school year, yet Hobbs accounted for 30 1/2 of the Lancers’ 130 1/2 points in the league finals at Moorpark last Friday by winning the 300-meter low hurdles in 47.52 and the pole vault at 9 feet, finishing second in the 100 high hurdles in a wind-aided 15.88 and running a leg on the victorious 1,600 relay team that clocked 4:12.27.

Only Brzezinski, who accounted for 32 1/2 points by winning the 100, 200 and long jump, and running a leg on the 1,600 relay, scored more points than Hobbs.

“Early on, we thought she was going to be OK,” Radnoti said. “But we didn’t realize how OK.”

Freshman Morgan Altizer, a renowned pentathlete in the Thousand Oaks Flyers youth program, clocked 46.8 in the 300 hurdles in the first meet of the season for the Lancers. But she missed six weeks of training because of a broken bone in her foot, Hobbs filled the void.

“She’s just a good athlete who worked hard and improved a lot,” Radnoti said.

Hobbs, who will compete in the Southern Section Division II preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College today, began running track when she was 6. But she had never competed in the 300 hurdles or pole vault until this season.

“It’s really neat to be a freshman on the varsity team,” she said. “But I had no idea I was going to [qualifify for the Southern Section preliminaries] in all these events.”

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The Thousand Oaks boys had a larger margin of victory over Royal in the league finals than previosly reported.

The initial results had Thousands Oaks edging Royal, 113-109, but the score actually was 119-103.

The score changed after it was discovered that Makisi Haleck’s third-place finish in the triple jump was credited to Royal instead of Thousand Oaks.

The top six finishers in each event scored points on a 10-8-6-4-2-1 basis.

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A strained right quadriceps appears to have ended Seth Amoo’s junior season at Highland.

Amoo is listed as an alternate on Highland’s 400 and 1,600 relay teams in the Southern Section Division I preliminaries at Long Beach City College today, but Coach Martin Price says it is “very, very doubtful that he’ll run.”

Amoo, seventh in the 200 in the Southern Section Masters meet last year, has bests of 21.83 in the 200 and 23-1 in the long jump this season. But he hurt his leg in the Willie Williams Invitational at the University of Arizona on March 18 and the injury got progressively worse and prevented him from competing in the Golden League finals last week.

“It’s very frustrating for him and somewhat frustrating for us,” Prince said. “We’re just glad he’s a junior and has another year left.”

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Treani Swain of Oakwood, one of the top freshman in the state, won’t run in the Southern Section Division IV preliminaries at Mt. SAC on Saturday because of a leg injury.

Swain, who was injured in the Russell Cup meet at Carpinteria High on April 15, ran 55.91 in the 400 and 2:14.24 in the 800 this season.

She ran an impressive 53.71 in the 400 last year and 2:09.00 in the 800 in 1998.

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Track Top 10

Rankings of teams from the region

BOYS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Taft (West Valley) 2 2 Birmingham (West Valley) 3 3 Cleveland (West Valley) 4 4 Notre Dame (Mission) 5 5 Palmdale (Golden) 6 9 Ventura (Channel) 7 6 Rio Mesa (Pacific View) 8 10 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 9 7 Hueneme (Pacific View) 10 8 Royal (Marmonte)

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GIRLS

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

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STAT OF THE WEEK

When Desiree Withers of Palmdale High bounded 38-5 to win the girls’ triple jump in the Golden League finals last week, she moved to seventh on the all-time region list.

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Mark Name, School Year 40-1 1/4 Cheaza Figueroa, Quartz Hill 1993 39-9 1/2 Vanitta Kinard, El Camino Real 1993 39-6 Eboni Grayson, Taft 1998 39-3 1/2 **Jameka Taylor, Littlerock 1997 39-2 3/4 Marji Gilles, Burbank 1988 39-0 Sharon Manship, Thousand Oaks 1987 38-5 Desiree Withers, Palmdale 2000 38-4 3/4 Tiffany Smith, Taft 1999 38-3 3/4 Neisha Henderson, Cleveland 1995 38-2 1/2 Lisa Gill, Alemany 1988

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**--Sophomore. Others are seniors.