Murray wins 400-meter league championship

Fallbrook High School freshman Erin Murray won the girls 400-meter race at the Valley League track and field meet May 12 at Valley Center High School.

Murray won the 400-meter event in 1:00.09. Ramona junior Rayna Valade was second with a time of 1:01.41, and San Pasqual senior Lauren Leisten had the third-place time of 1:01.42.

“It’s tremendous. The sky’s the limit for her because she’s a tremendous worker,” Fallbrook head coach Marco Arias said of Murray.

The Valley League championship in the 400-meter race was the second in a row for Fallbrook. Last year April Paulson broke the finish tape, but this year shin splints limited Paulson’s season and Murray became the Warriors’ prime 400-meter runner.

“She handled it just fine,” Arias said.

The 2016 Valley League meet included six Fallbrook girls championships. Two of those were by 2016 seniors: Natalie Dudley won the 800-meter race, and Andrea Vela was the 3,200-meter champion. Audrey Peterson, who won last year’s 1,600-meter event as a freshman, finished third this year. Emily Larson won last year’s high jump at the league meet, but this year a stress fracture in the bottom of the senior’s foot kept her out of May competition. Sandra Duong won last year’s pole vault championship as a freshman but opted to focus on academics this year.

Fallbrook’s first track and field league meet as a Valley League member was in 2015; none of the first-place marks that year were by Warrior girls.

The league standings are based on dual meet results only, and the league meet is not a factor. Fallbrook was third among the five Valley League teams this year.

“We had a really good chance of actually winning it,” Arias said.

Dual meet scoring gives five points for first place, three points for second place and one point for third place in the 14 individual events. The two relay races are worth five points to the winner and no points to the other team.

“We were very top-heavy,” Arias said. “When you lose one of those girls it really drops it back. Those injuries to two of our seniors kind of hit us really hard.”

The Warriors were able to rely on sophomore Darriale Yarbrough in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the long jump and the 4x100 relay.

“Darriale pretty much brought in 20 points every single meet,” Arias said. “She’s exciting to watch.”

Murray participated in the 300-meter hurdles and the 4x100 and 4x400 relays along with the 400-meter race. An athlete is limited to four events in one meet, and during the season Murray also ran the 200-meter dash.

“She’s really a jack of all trades,” Arias said. “I thought she could make a big difference. She was a big factor for us.”

The lack of depth was often the difference in the team result, but the Warriors had respectable showings in their defeats.

“They actually were in every single meet, never got blown out,” Arias said. “In every single meet it was close. We had some very special girls.”

Murray’s 300-meter hurdles time of 49.88 seconds placed fifth at the league meet.

Although Escondido freshman Cassandra Wright won the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.85 seconds, Yarbrough was second at 12.92 seconds and Valley Center senior Alicia Zappia took third with a 13.08-second performance. Zappia won the long jump with a distance of 17 feet 3 inches while Yarbrough jumped 16-8 for second place and San Pasqual junior Sydney Pollard had the third-place mark of 16-3.

A time of 26.82 seconds in the 200-meter dash gave Yarbrough third in that race, behind Wright and Pollard and immediately ahead of Zappia. Peterson’s time of 5 minutes, 32.84 seconds in the 1,600-meter race trailed the 5:26.90 winning time of San Pasqual senior Renee Laurenzana and the 5:27.07 performance of Valley Center freshman Rachel Favela.

“We need more numbers as far as being able to compete and be successful,” Arias said.