Murray wins 400-meter race at league meet

Fallbrook High School sophomore Erin Murray won the girls 400-meter race at the Valley League championship meet May 11 at Valley Center High School.

"We competed really well," said Fallbrook head coach Marco Arias. "We had some pretty good performances at the league meet."

Murray had a time of 1:00.06. Ramona senior Rayna Valade finished second at 1:02.40. San Pasqual junior Lauren Leisten had the third-place time of 1:02.66.

"It was a really good race for her," Arias said. "She ran really well."

Murray had not competed since being part of Fallbrook's 4x400 relay team in the April 25 league dual meet at home against Valley Center and had not run the individual 400-meter race since winning the April 14 Jaguar Invitational meet at Valley Center High School.

"She was also coming back from an injury, so her first 100 was relatively slow," Arias said. "She was really cautious the first 100."

The hamstring injury caused her to scratch out of her races in the April 27 Escondido Invitational meet, and Murray did not participate in the May 3 league dual meet at home against Ramona which would provide Valade with her final three high school victories, including the 400-meter race as well as the 200-meter dash and the 4x400 relay.

Valade was no match for Murray at the league meet. "She passed her at the 200 mark and just pulled away from that point," Arias said.

San Pasqual senior Renee Laurenzana won the girls 1,600-meter race with a time of 5:33.85. Fallbrook junior Audrey Petersen took second with a time of 5:41.84. The third-place time of 5:44.82 was posted by Ramona sophomore Alyssa Davis. Ramona junior Lexi Waples was fourth at 5:45.90. Fallbrook senior Gisselle Rivera had the fifth-place time of 5:51.99.

Petersen added a fifth-place finish in the 800-meter race, which took her 2:24.19. Rivera closed out her high school career in the 3,200-meter run, where her time of 12:48.18 was worth sixth place.

San Pasqual junior Caroline Pham landed a discus 97'6" past the throwing circle for the superlative distance at the league meet. Fallbrook junior Siena Allen was second with a 95'10" distance. Fallbrook sophomore Rosaline Sanchez had an 85'11" throw for fifth place.

The first track and field league meet for freshman Charlene Cayas included a shot put throw of 27'10" which gave her sixth place. Allen had the seventh-place distance of 26'7".

A distance of 16'9" gave San Pasqual senior Sydney Pollard the girls long jump league championship. Fallbrook freshman Jade Kennedy took second with a jump of 16 feet 0 1/2 inches. Kennedy also finished fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.21 seconds.

Maya Rink cleared 8'5" in the pole vault to give the sophomore third place in that event while junior Katie Hutzler placed sixth with a distance of 7'5".

"Across the board we had a great showing, especially on the girls side," Arias said.

Three Fallbrook boys had second-place finishes at the league meet. The tiebreaking criteria in case of equal distances in the high jump or the pole vault is fewer misses at lower distances, and it cost Fallbrook senior Jared Casillas the pole vault league championship when he and San Pasqual junior Amadeo Gonzalez both cleared 11'9" but Gonzalez was given first place due to the tiebreaker.

"That was a close one for us," said Arias. "He could have been league champ."

A pair of 9'9" distances by Fallbrook pole vaulters gave the Warriors three of the top six positions in that event; sophomore Ian Whadford was given fifth place and senior Ben Zepeda closed out his high school career with sixth place.

Escondido junior Joshua Cabarle threw the shot put 50'0" to win that event. Fallbrook junior Darius Watson had the second-place distance of 45'10".

Ramona senior Januar Ramadhan had the winning distance of 22'11" in the boys long jump. The next-longest distance was the 21'7" posted by Fallbrook junior Caiden Metts.

The highest finish for a Fallbrook boy in a running event was fourth; sophomore Josh Hernandez accomplished that with a 4:46.77 performance in the 1,600-meter race and senior Michael Gross completed the 100-meter dash in 11.54 seconds. The 1,600-meter race also included freshman Danny Contreras finishing sixth at 4:55.36.

"That's pretty impressive because he is a freshman," said Arias of Contreras' performance.

Gross had the fifth-place time of 23.58 seconds in the 200-meter dash. Hernandez added sixth place in the 3,200-meter event, which took him 10:34.46. The Warriors also had a sixth-place performance in the boys 300-meter hurdles, which took senior Blake Purpura 45.47 seconds to reach the finish line.

"Very proud of the way they performed," said Arias. "They toughed it out."

Current junior Darriale Yarbrough, who won last year's CIF Division I girls 100-meter dash championship, was limited to two meets this year due to an injury.

Other than the five graduating seniors Arias expects the rest of the team to compete in 2019 meets.

"Now they have a full year of experience, so they're going to be coming back and challenging for those top spots next year," Arias said. "It's exciting."