Santa Margarita Remains Strong Despite Defections

Santa Margarita’s bid for a Southern Section Division III girls’ track and field title lost some steam after two key members quit the team this week, but the Eagles still came out of the preliminaries looking strong Saturday.

Santa Margarita athletes qualified in nine of 14 individual events and also ran the top time of 48.85 seconds in the 400-meter relay at Long Beach Veterans Stadium. But Santa Margarita Coach Gil Garcia had to scratch his 1,600 relay team when he realized he wasn’t going to have enough bodies to field a team for the finals at Cerritos College next Saturday.

Freshman Emily Kalmbach told Garcia on Tuesday that she was leaving the team because of a conflict with an Olympic Development Program soccer tryout. The same day, alternate Whitney Larson quit for personal reasons.

The Southern Section does allow two alternates to accompany a team during the Southern Section preliminaries and finals, but the other alternate for Santa Margarita was already scheduled to miss the finals due to a prior commitment.

“I had to turn in my list of qualifiers and alternates last Friday,” Garcia said. “So [when Kalmbach and Larson quit] it was too late to list another alternate.”

The 1,600 relay will conclude the running events in the finals, and without a team, Santa Margarita must build a lead big enough to make the race meaningless.

If Corona del Mar is within 10 points heading into the final relay, the Eagles could be in trouble. With Liz Morse running a 54.9 anchor, the Sea Kings posted the top qualifying time of 4:00.60 in the event.

Morse, who already ran top qualifying times in the 400 (56.69) and 800 (2:20.08) and was second-best in the 200 (24.80), began the final relay leg 20 meters behind Mater Dei’s Lindsay Wells. Morse caught her in the middle of the final turn and finished 20 meters ahead. Mater Dei’s time of 4:02.27 was the second-fastest of the day and the Monarchs are also expected to be near the top at the finals.

In addition to Morse and the relay team, Corona del Mar qualified athletes in five other events. Mater Dei qualified in both relays and nine individual events.

The Santa Margarita boys are expected to battle with Los Angeles Loyola for the division title Saturday. Santa Margarita’s 1,600 relay team posted the top qualifying time of 3:23.39.

At the Division IV prelims:

Parkinson shines--St. Margaret’s sophomore Jocelyn Parkinson ran a county-leading 45.35 in the 300 hurdles, the top qualifying time in the event, at Mt. San Antonio College. She also qualified second in the 100 hurdles (15.82).