Fallbrook High tears up the track

Fallbrook High School’s track and field teams opened the 2009 Avocado League season March 19 with a dual meet at Escondido High School in which Fallbrook’s boys prevailed by a 75-61 score.

“On the boys’ side we came up big,” said Fallbrook head coach Troy Hamlin.

“That was a most impressive performance,” Hamlin said. “It showed that we have enough up front to challenge some of the better teams in the county.”

Escondido won the 2007 CIF Division I championship. “We were very pleased to beat Escondido,” Hamlin said.

Since runners and field athletes compete concurrently, Hamlin was not aware that the Warriors had clinched the meet entering the final event, the 4x400 relay. “We lined up our best team and put them out there,” Hamlin said.

Fallbrook’s 4x400 relay team won the race in 3:30.2. Garrison Haddon matched up against Escondido’s Ricky Seale in the first leg and handed the baton to Justin Jones with the Warriors down approximately 20 meters despite Haddon’s time of 53.4 seconds.

Jones’ time of 53.7 seconds kept Fallbrook within striking distance, and Cody Williams completed his lap in 53.0 seconds to give Fallbrook a lead of about three meters before Marquis Sumpter began the anchor lap.

Sumpter, who was ill during the week and did not run the open 400-meter race, completed his lap in 50.3 seconds.

Sumpter, who missed school during two of the three previous days due to his illness, competed in the 100-meter dash against Seale and won the race with a time of 10.80 seconds.

“Marquis just put him away right from the blocks,” Hamlin said. “He beat him by a good two-tenths of a second.”

Dual meets use hand-timing rather than electronic clocks, but Sumpter was clearly the winner. “He left Ricky on the block and Ricky never stood a chance,” Hamlin said.

Sumpter beat both Seale and Escondido sprinter James Finley in the 200-meter dash, winning with a time of 22.2 seconds. “The race was over from the time it started, at least for first,” Hamlin said.

Fallbrook senior Uriel Aguirre also won three races, taking the 800-meter run in 2:01.8, the 1,600-meter event in 4:41.6, and the 3,200-meter race in 10:11.6. “That’s probably arguably the hardest triple there is in track and field,” Hamlin said.

“He was not running for time. He was running to get points for the team,” Hamlin said of Aguirre, whose three first-place finishes accounted for 15 of Fallbrook’s 75 points. “He did a nice job.”

Individual events at a dual meet provide five points to the first-place competitor’s team, three points for second place, and one point for third place.

Fallbrook gained eight points in each of two events by taking the top two spots in the 110-meter hurdles and the pole vault.

Matt Day won the hurdles in 18.1 seconds with Tommy Bunts taking 18.4 seconds while Anthony Pando cleared 14’0” to win the pole vault and Tom Skinner’s height of 13’0” was worth second place.

Although Bunts finished second to his teammate in the 110-meter hurdles, he won the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 45.1 seconds, which is also a personal record for Bunts.

Fallbrook’s girls lost to Escondido by a 98-38 margin. “We had a good day in the field, not such a good day on the track,” Hamlin said.

Fallbrook senior Noelle Garcia won the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 50.5 seconds. “A very good mark for a distance runner,” Hamlin said.

In the 1,600-meter run Garcia’s time of 5:36 finished second behind Escondido’s Emily Birch. Fallbrook took second and third in the 400-meter run with Jamie Garcia posting a time of 1:06.7 and Carrie Jercinovich completing her lap in 1:08.4.

Fallbrook took the top two positions in both the long jump and the triple jump. Ellen Grantham won the long jump at 14’7” while Hannah Wilson was second at 14’ 2 3/4”.

Wilson won the triple jump with a distance of 30’6” while Grantham was second at 30’3”. Rachel Day was second in the high jump at 4’4”; Deanna Doss threw the discus 92’5” for second place, and April Doss hurled the shot put 29’ 7 1/2” to take third.

Two Warriors cleared 9’0” in the pole vault to set personal records; Kyle Little earned third place based on fewest previous missed attempts while Olivia Tidd was relegated to fourth-place status.

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