Ruziecki Has Heavy Heart, Difficult Day at Mt. SAC

The cold, windy weather put a damper on much of the competition Saturday at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays, but Huntington Beach High junior Brian Ruziecki had much more to overcome.

Ruziecki, the county leader in the shotput and discus, found out less than 24 hours earlier that Jordan Connolly, a friend and teammate on the Huntington Beach football team, was killed in a single-car accident Thursday night in Riverside County.

Ruziecki played left tackle last season and Connolly was the Oilers’ most valuable lineman at right guard. They lined up next to each other in 1999 and had played together since junior high.

“As you can tell [by my performance], it’s real hard to concentrate right now,” said Ruziecki, who finished eighth in the discus and seventh in the shotput.

Ruziecki said he was invited on the ill-fated trip to Lake Havasu, which began Thursday and included three other Huntington Beach High football players. Saturday’s meet was one of the reasons he declined.

Ruziecki was entered in both the invitational shotput and discus competitions. He said he never considered dropping out, but was not at his best.

He threw out of bounds on two of his six attempts in the discus and his best throw of 156 feet 4 inches was more than 30 feet short of his personal best, set April 14 while finishing third at the Arcadia Invitational. His mark of 52-9 in the shotput was well short of his best of 57-1 1/2.

The conditions also played a factor, as competitors in the shotput and discus had to throw into the wind.

The only county athletes the wind didn’t seem to affect were Santa Margarita’s Mandie Rowell and Newport Harbor’s Amber Steen.

Rowell, a sophomore, tied for sixth in the girls’ pole vault, but her mark of 11-8 tied for fourth on the all-time county list.

Steen, an Arizona-bound senior, won the girls’ invitational 1,500 meters in 4:28.00. It was the third-fastest time in county history for that distance, which is rarely run at the high school level.

In a tight finish among county runners, Woodbridge’s Jessica Kanin finished seventh (4:41.44) in the the 1,500, Santa Margarita’s Lori Mann was eighth (4:41.98) and Marina’s Vanessa Kelly was ninth (4:42.27).

Mann also finished fourth in the 3,000 meters in 10:09.02, and Kanin came back to finish seventh in the 800 in 2:16.67.

Woodbridge sophomore Michelle Sanford was runner-up in both the invitational long jump and triple jump.

Sanford managed a wind-aided 18-11 1/2 in the long jump to finish behind Long Beach Poly’s Candice Baucham, whose best was a wind-legal 19-4. Sanford came back with a 39-10 1/4 effort in the triple jump, which was second to Mexico’s Lucilia Contreras (40-5 1/2).

Mission Viejo senior Dana Bethel was fifth in the long jump at 18-3 1/2 and fifth in the 100 hurdles in a county-leading 14.51.

An early miss cost Edison’s Rachael Ziemann a victory in the girls’ high jump for the second consecutive week. Ziemann tied for second after clearing 5-6 but failing to match her season best of 5-8 on three attempts.

Ziemann missed on her first attempt at 5-6, but winner Schquay Brignac of Woodland Hills Taft made 5-6 on her first try before also failing to clear 5-8.

Magnolia junior Vao Faoa, coming off a strong third-place finish in the discus at Arcadia, was fourth with a throw of 143-2.

Santa Margarita lowered its county-leading time in the boys’ 1,600 relay by more than one second, finishing fourth in the invitational race in 3:17.13. Long Beach Poly was first in 3:15.97.

Irvine’s Mario Bassani, the county leader in the 400, skipped that event in favor of the 200, where he finished second in one of two heats in a county-leading 21.54, which tied for fifth overall.

Marina’s Raemon Rodriguez led the boys’ 3,000-meter race for 3 1/2 laps before finishing sixth in 8:56.71. In the boys’ 1,500, Santa Margarita’s Steven Murray was seventh in 4:05.94 and Corona del Mar’s Josh Yelsey was 11th in 4:10.16.

In the boys’ pole vault, Fountain Valley’s B.J. Vandrovec and Edison’s Aaron Corbett finished tied for sixth at 14-7.